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Reading 2 mins.
in collaboration with
Geraldine Tarrasona (Midwife)
Medical validation:
October 20, 2022
By being pregnant for 398 days, Jacqueline Haddock defied predictions. But how to explain such a long gestation period? Géraldine Dahan Tarrassona, midwife, answers us.
273 days on average. This is the average time it takes for a pregnancy to come to term. However, some women curiously exceed this time limit. This is the case of Jacqueline Haddock, a 23-year-old Briton who had to wait nearly 398 days before giving birth – 13 months and 1 week.
Pregnant for over a year
While some women get impatient after a few months of pregnancy, Jacqueline Haddock had to wait 13 months and 1 week before giving birth.
At the time – the facts date back to 1910 – the young woman from Wolverhampton, England, went to London hospital after a 9-month wait. But she was quickly sent home by the doctors. They estimate, after examination, that it is still too early to trigger the delivery.
Weeks pass and nothing happens. Jacqueline Haddock ended up giving birth to a little girl weighing around 1,360 kilos on March 23, 1910, after 13 months and a week of pregnancy.
A difficult experience that will take away her desire to be a mother a second time:
“JI don’t think we will have another child after this because I suffered“, she had declared.
Since that date, the young woman still holds the record for the longest pregnancy in the world.
For Dr. Dahan-Tarrasona, this case is extremely isolated.
“The medical means of the time were not the same as today. We now have ultrasound to date the pregnancy. Then, when we approach the term, the future mother and the fetus are carefully monitored. If nothing happens, at the end of the 41st week, an obstetric examination is carried out and the fetal well-being is assessed with a cardiac recording of the baby accompanied by an ultrasound to check the amount of amniotic fluid every 48 Then, at the 41st week + 4 or 5 days maximum, labor is induced – or earlier if an anomaly is detected.”
Follow your pregnancy week by week
The duration of a pregnancy varies according to each woman.
Contrary to popular belief, Jacqueline Haddock is not the only one to have experienced a “prolonged” pregnancy.
While specialists estimate that an average pregnancy lasts 280 days (about 40 weeks), in 1971, a 28-year-old English woman gave birth to a baby girl weighing about 1 kg after 390 days.
A “prolonged” pregnancy which is not without risk for the mother and the child.
“The placenta is not made to last as long. A baby whose term is exceeded runs several risks such as developmental anomalies. It is also more exposed to the risk of fetal death in utero. Ditto on the side of the mother, who may suffer from obstetrical complications”, warns Dr. Dahan-Tarrasona.
Babies born after the due date can thus develop neurological complications, psychomotor development disorders… and the mother can suffer from haemorrhages, infections and tears.
As a reminder, specialists believe that the term is “exceeded” beyond 42 weeks. But the baby is considered full-term (perfectly viable) from 37 weeks. This is why the duration of gestation is very variable from one woman to another.
Slide: The fetus in pictures, week by week