So here's the truth. Your due date is a terrible predictor of exactly when you will give birth.

Welcome to the All About Pregnancy and Birth podcast. If you're having a baby in the hospital,

you are giving birth in a system that too often takes away power from women over what happens in their own bodies.

I'm Dr. Nicole Calloway-Rankens, a practicing board certified OBGYN, who's had the privilege of helping well over a thousand babies into this world.

I've been a doctor for over 20 years, and I'm here to help you take back your power,

advocate for yourself, and have the beautiful pregnancy and birth that you deserve.

This podcast is for educational purposes only and it's not a substitute for medical advice.

Check out the full disclaimer at Dr.Nopoldenance.com full with slash disclaimer.

Now let's get to it.

Hello there. Welcome to this short episode of the podcast, whether this is your first time listening or you've been here before. I'm so grateful

you're spending some time with me today. Let's chat for a minute about due dates. One of the

first things that will happen when you start prenatal care is that you'll be

given a due date. It's usually based on the first day of your last period or it may be based

on the earliest ultrasound you had, whichever one that we determine is the most accurate.

So what is a due date important for? Well, due dates are

actually really important. We use the due date to track how far along you are in your pregnancy

so we can make sure your baby is growing as expected and that we do test at the appropriate time.

So for example, if you're 30 weeks pregnant,

we want to know that the baby is the size that we would expect at 30 weeks and especially not

too small because a small baby is a sign that the baby may be an environment where they can't grow

well where they're not thriving.

And if we hadn't established how far along you are, then we can't determine what the appropriate

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