37 is NOT the new 40

Call me crazy, but there is probably some sort of reason nature made gestation about 40 weeks, yet it's common practice for a scheduled cesarean (or an induction) to be done at around 37 weeks in spite of many studies that show this is NOT evidence based or best practice. Here's another reason to say no unless your or you baby's life is at risk by staying pregnant longer:

In the newest issue of the APPPH Newsletter (Association for Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology & Health) on birth psychology, a study shows:

Bigger is Better
A baby’s brain at 35 weeks
weighs only two-thirds what it
will weigh at 39 weeks

NEW RESEARCH SHOWS WHY EVERY WEEK OF PREGNANCY COUNTS
New research shows that the last weeks of pregnancy are more important than once thought for brain, lung and liver
development, and there may be lasting consequences for babies born at 34 to 36 weeks, now called “late preterm.” Experts
also warn that a fetus’s estimated age may be off by as much as two weeks either way, meaning that a baby thought to be
36 weeks along might be only 34. A study in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecologycalculated that for each
week a baby stayed in the womb between 32 and 39 weeks, there is a 23% decrease in problems such as respiratory
distress, jaundice, seizures, temperature instability and brain hemorrhages. A study of nearly 15,000 children in the Journal
of Pediatrics found that those born between 32 and 36 weeks had lower reading
and math scores in first grade than babies who went to full term. The American
College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Pediatrics
and the March of Dimes are now urging obstetricians not to deliver babies before
39 weeks unless there is a medical reason to do so. But it isn’t always easy to tell
which elective early deliveries are done for medical reasons, such as fetal distress
or pre-eclampsia, and which aren’t. “Obstetricians know the rules and they are
very creative about some of their indications—like ‘impending pre-eclampsia,’”
says Alan Fleischman, medical director for the March of Dimes. Why do doctors
agree to deliver a baby early when there’s no medical reason? Some cite pressure
from parents. “‘I’m tired of being pregnant. My fingers are swollen. My mother-
in-law is coming’—we hear that all the time,” says Laura E. Riley, medical
director of labor and delivery at Massachusetts General Hospital. There’s also a
perception that delivering early by c-section is safer for the baby, even though it
means major surgery for the mom. . “The idea is that somehow, if you’re in
complete control of the delivery, then only good things will happen. But that’s
categorically wrong. The baby and the uterus know best,” says F. Sessions Cole,
director of newborn medicine at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. He explains that a complex series of events occurs in late
pregnancy to prepare the baby to survive outside the womb: The fetus acquires fat needed to maintain body temperature;
the liver matures enough to eliminate bilirubin from the body; and the lungs get ready to exchange oxygen as soon as the
umbilical cord is clamped. Disrupting any of those steps can result in brain damage and other problems. In addition, the
squeezing of the uterus during labor stimulates the baby and the placenta to make steroid hormones that help this last phase
of lung maturation—and that’s missed if the mother never goes into labor.