Can you be pregnant for fifty two weeks?

Answer 1

No, that is 3 months longer than we need to bring a baby to term. After approximately 40 weeks the placenta which is the organ responsible for giving the baby oxygen and nutrition starts getting too old to support the baby - it may actually start pulling away from the wall of the uterus - further depriving the baby of life support. After 40 weeks there is an increase in fetal distress and stillbirth due to a break down of the placenta.

Once the woman hits 40 weeks, if she does not go into labor, her doctor should be monitoring the baby's well being at least once per week.

At 42 weeks her doctor will most likely induce her labor or at least strip her membranes (with a finger - momentarily swipe between the rim of the cervix and the amniotic sac) This causes a rush of hormones that can put a woman into labor (within 3 days) if her cervix is ripe. If she is not ready - it most likely will have no effect.

In order to have 38 to 42 weeks be the average full term gestation there will be women who have full term babies at 36 or 37 weeks and women who have full term babies at 43 or 44 weeks, but they will be very few and very far between.

Coming from a woman who had 3 kids and a 38, 40 and 42.5 week gestation, the 42.5 week baby was the size of the average kindergarten student when he was born. I cannot imagine being 44 weeks pregnant.

Answer 2

Unlikely. If so, something is wrong with the pregnancy.

50 months is almost a whole year (12 months) and a girl should only be pregnant for 9 months (give or take a few weeks).