Have you ever wondered what the longest human pregnancy ever recorded was? We can tell you that it was a long time, an extremely long time. So long in fact that it makes you question its authenticity. However, the longest human pregnancy was a documented event verified with laboratory tests.
Most pregnancies last for about 9 months, 40 weeks, or 280 days in women. But it is not unheard of for women to go beyond that, but usually it’s not by much. Usually if a woman exceeds the due date for her pregnancy by 10 days she will be induced. The reason for induction is due to increased risks to both the unborn baby and mother. Some of these risks include a longer labor, increased trauma for both mother and baby, increased risk of stillbirth and failure of the placenta. That’s part of what makes this long gestational period so amazing.
How long was the longest human pregnancy?
There have been examples of some women going well beyond 10 days over due, but none ever made it this far. The worlds longest human pregnancy lasted a massive total of 375 days! That’s a full 95 days over due, and 10 days longer than a year. It beat the previous longest human pregnancy record holder by nearly 2 full months, 58 days, which itself is an astounding feat. Doctors swear that the woman in question had tested positive to a laboratory pregnancy test over a year before she delivered that baby.
Now, if the extended period of gestation is anything to go by one would expect for a large baby at the time of birth. But this didn’t happen at all. Surprisingly, the mother, 25 year old Beulah Hunter gave birth to a healthy 7 pound baby girl. For those who aren’t familiar with birth weights, that’s on the smaller side of a normal birth weight.
