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Day 294 · 14 days past your due date

The handover

Last reviewed · 3 min read · 6 sources · Plain-text version

Fourteen days past your due date: 42 weeks, and the last note of your pregnancy. What post term means, what to expect now, and where your baby's notes begin.

Size this week
around 3 to 4 kg
Weight this week
around 3 to 4 kg
A woman with a full bump in a loose coat stands at an open front door holding a packed bag, her partner beside her with the car keys, early morning light on the step.

Fourteen days past your due date: 42 weeks. This is the last note of your pregnancy. There have been 281 of them since the day your baby was conceived, and from here the notes belong to your baby.

Your baby

At 42 weeks or later, a pregnancy is called "post term" (NICHD). Most pregnancies last 37 to 42 weeks; yours has used every one of them (MedlinePlus). Your baby is likely around the average of 3 to 4kg, and in the NHS's words, "chubby enough and mature enough to survive outside the uterus (womb) without any assistance" (NHS).

Your body

Between 41 and 42 weeks, MedlinePlus says, your provider will likely want to induce labor, and a C-section is needed only if induction fails, there may be fetal distress, or labor stops progressing (MedlinePlus). If you don't yet have a plan in hand for the next day or two, call your provider today and ask for one.

The NHS's last to-do list is about after: look after your emotional wellbeing, think about contraception, and ask about the screening tests your newborn will be offered (NHS). The CDC's warning signs don't stop at the birth either; they apply for the year after delivery too (CDC).

Try today

  1. The handover

    Time: 5 minutes

    1. Close this series. You don't need any more pregnancy notes; you've done the reading.

    2. Open your first month and find day 1, your baby's first day.

    3. Put it where you'll see it first when you pick up your phone after the birth.

    4. Tell your partner where it is, so either of you can open it.

    Make it work:

    Keep the pages you wrote this month, the questions and the counts. They're a record of the waiting, and some families like to keep it.

Watch for

  • Normal

    a baby who moves in their usual pattern, even with no room left.

    Call your provider

    right away, day or night, if movement stops or slows (CDC).

  • Normal

    discharge that changes as labour gets close.

    Call your provider

    now for vaginal bleeding or fluid leaking (CDC).

  • Normal

    feeling ready for anything, or for nothing at all.

    Call 911

    , or call or text 988 or 1-833-TLC-MAMA, if you have thoughts about harming yourself or your baby (CDC).

  • Normal

    knowing your own body better than any page does.

    Call your provider

    if you feel like something just isn't right, even if it isn't on any list; the CDC says to tell them (CDC).

For you

Forty-two weeks is a long time to carry anyone. Whatever the last fortnight has been, impatient, frightened, funny, flat, you got through it a day at a time, and that is exactly the skill the next month asks for.

One thing to carry over: if sadness after the birth lasts more than two weeks, the Office on Women's Health says to see your doctor then, not wait for the postpartum visit (OWH). If you're the partner, that's yours to notice too. From today, the notes are written to both of you about someone else. Read them together when you can.

This is the last page of the pregnancy. Your baby's year starts at your first month, with their first day. We'll see you there.

Sources

This guide is general education that summarizes published research and guidance from groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics, the CDC, and the WHO. It isn’t medical advice, and every child develops on their own timeline. Your pediatrician knows your child; if something feels wrong, call them. In an emergency, call 911.

Get each day’s note the morning it applies

Add your due date to a free Chorevia household, and every morning until the birth the day's note arrives in the app and by email: what's forming, what your body is doing, one thing to try, what to watch for, and a word for you.

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