Fathers often get the blame for things that go awry with children and now such accusations extended to pregnancy itself.
A new study suggests the father may be responsible for births that run past their delivery dates.
Researchers from the Danish Epidemiology Science Centre at the University of Aarhus decided to study possible reasons for "prolonged pregnancy" and they publish their findings today in the British Medical Journal.
Pregnancy typically lasts 40 weeks but the anxious wait for the big day can last much longer. Prolonged pregnancy - one lasting 42 weeks or more - only occurs in 5 per cent of all births but is a matter of some concern beyond what star sign you get. Longer pregnancy is associated with a higher incidence of complications for both mother and child, writes Dr Annette Wind Olesen and colleagues.
The team studied the risk of having more than one prolonged pregnancy, using data from the Danish medical birth registry. They looked in particular at how either a change in partner or change in social conditions might influence the chances of a second prolonged pregnancy.
They assembled two large study groups covering births from 1980 through 1994, comparing first pregnancy with second pregnancy.
The results showed that women with a first prolonged pregnancy were much more likely to have a late delivery the second time around.
The increased risk was about one in five but increased to almost one in three births for women who had pregnancies lasting as long as 44 weeks.
Unexpectedly, the risk of a second late delivery dropped to about 15 per cent if the woman had found a new partner.
