Editorial Policy
This site publishes information about pregnancy and labor timing. That is health content, and people read it while making real decisions. This page explains exactly how our content is produced, what our standards are, and just as importantly, what this site is not.
Who Writes This Content
Articles on this site are researched and written by the Labor Probability Calculator editorial team. We want to be direct about what that means: we are not physicians, midwives, or nurses. We do not provide medical advice, and nothing here is a substitute for care from a qualified provider who knows your history.
What we do is read the primary obstetric literature and clinical guidelines carefully, and translate them into plain language with the numbers intact. Where the research is uncertain or contested, we say so rather than papering over it.
Our Sources
We prioritize primary and guideline-level sources over secondary reporting. In practice that means:
- Clinical guidance from recognized bodies, primarily the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), and where relevant NICE, WHO, and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.
- Peer-reviewed studies and systematic reviews, including Cochrane reviews.
- For our probability figures specifically: Jukic et al. (2013) on the natural variation in human pregnancy length, and Mittendorf et al. (1990) on median gestation. Our methodology is described on the calculator page.
We do not use other content sites as sources, and we do not republish or rewrite material from elsewhere.
How We Write About Evidence
Medical claims are hedged to match the actual strength of the evidence behind them. We use language like “most studies suggest,” “typically,” and “may,” and we avoid “proves,” “guarantees,” and “always.” Where a popular claim is not well supported, we say that plainly instead of repeating it.
Population statistics describe groups, not individuals. A figure that holds across thousands of pregnancies tells you very little about any single one, including yours. We try to keep that distinction visible rather than implying more precision than the data supports.
What This Site Cannot Do
Our calculator is a statistical tool built on population-level research. It does not know your cervical length, your placenta position, your blood pressure, your fetal measurements, or anything else your provider learns by examining you. It does not model induced labor, planned cesarean delivery, or twin and higher-order pregnancies, all of which follow different timelines.
If you have a complicated pregnancy, treat everything here as background reading only and follow your provider’s guidance. If something feels wrong, contact your provider rather than consulting a website. That advice holds even when it contradicts something we have written.
Updates and Corrections
Each article shows a publication date and a last-updated date. We revise content when clinical guidelines change or when new research meaningfully shifts the picture. The last-updated date reflects a genuine content review, not a formatting change.
If you find an error, we want to know. Accuracy matters more to us than being right, and corrections to health content are worth making quickly. Email contact@laborprobabilitycalculator.com with the page and the problem, and we will review it and correct it if you are right.
Advertising and Independence
This site may display advertising, which is how it stays free to use. Advertisers have no input into our content, and no article is written, altered, or removed on behalf of an advertiser. We do not publish sponsored posts or paid product placements. See our Privacy Policy for how advertising cookies are handled.