Babies who spend an extra week in the womb perform slightly better in school and are classified as gifted more often than babies born at the standard 39 or 40 weeks of pregnancy, a new study indicates.
But the extra smarts come with a tradeoff. Children born at 41 weeks – known as late-term – are also at greater risk of having a physical disability than babies born at full term (39 or 40 weeks), according to the same study published in the journal Pediatrics.
Researchers examined birth certificates for more than 1 million babies born in Florida between 1994 and 2002. They linked the birth data to public school records for when those children reached elementary and middle school.
The results showed late-term infants performed a little better – 0.7 percent higher – in standardized test scores for reading and math than their full-term peers. Late-term babies were also 2.8 percent more likely than full-term babies to be labeled as gifted in school.
On the downside, late-term infants had a 2.1 percent greater chance than full-term babies of having some kind of physical impairment.
The study is notable for its size – a trend spotted among over 1 million children is less likely to be a fluke than a trend found among one hundred kids. One researcher called the results “modest but meaningful.”
Even so, there could be other factors that influenced the children’s intellect that the study didn’t take into account. The researchers didn’t have information about the mothers’ nutrition during pregnancy, or what happened to the kids between birth and third grade. Also, women and doctors don’t always know the exact date a baby is conceived, so some of the data might not be accurate.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends 39 to 40 week as the optimum time to give birth in a normal pregnancy because that gives babies the best chance of being healthy. The new study doesn’t change that recommendation. Authors of the study suggested it could be used as additional information for doctors and parents trying to decide whether to induce delivery at full term or wait an extra week.
What do you think of this study? Would you take the risk of prolonging your pregnancy if it meant your child might be smarter?
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