The expected date of delivery (EDD) is the date on which a woman is expected to give birth to the child she is carrying (pregnant with). It is calculated by adding 280 days or 40 weeks to the first day of the last menstrual period (LMP). Childbirth is also referred to by doctors as parturition. Delivery is the process of helping the child to be born. A spontaneous vaginal delivery (SVD) is a normal delivery. If there are complications, the baby may be delivered by caesarean section (surgically removed).

A full-term pregnancy is 40 weeks, divided into three trimesters. A baby who is born before this is premature, and one born after 40 weeks is postmature. A baby who is born dead, for example because the umbilical cord is around its neck, is stillborn. A pregnancy may end before term spontaneously, with a miscarriage (spontaneous abortion), or be deliberately terminated with an induced abortion (termination of pregnancy).

Note: the verb induce means to cause something to happen.

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