Research shows American women give birth earlier than Dutch women

A recent study showed that, on average, American women give birth earlier than British and Dutch women. For instance, 44% of Dutch women and 40% of British women give birth after a pregnancy of 40 weeks or more, compared with only 23% of American women, according to a study by Boston University School of Public Health, Oxford University, Harvard Medical School, and Amsterdam UMC.

The researchers also found that the average gestational age of U.S. women dropped by more than half a week between 1990 and 2020. The amount of time fell from 39.1 weeks to 38.5 weeks.

The approach to health care likely comprised one aspect leading to the researchers' conclusions. "Our study seems to indicate that, compared with other high-income countries, obstetric care in U.S. hospitals is primarily focused on the convenience of health care workers and does not meet the needs of birthing women," explained researcher Neel Shah of the Maven Clinic and Harvard Medical School. In fact, home births in the U.S. peak in the same early morning hours as in other countries, while hospital births occur primarily during the normal working hours of health care workers, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. However, that is not in line with the general natural course of events.

"In the U.S., births are much more often attended by gynecologists, while in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, most births are attended by midwives," said Ank de Jonge, professor of midwifery at Amsterdam UMC. "Obstetric care in the U.S. relies much more heavily on medical intervention than that in the U.K. and the Netherlands."

Overall, the study includes data on more than 3.8 million births in the US and 156,000 births in the Netherlands in 2014, and more than 56,000 births in England from 2008 to 2010.