Your due date is just an estimate. Any time two weeks before or two weeks after your due date is normal so really your baby is not late until 2 weeks after your due date. They don't like to let you go over 42 weeks because risks increase slihtly after that time. In UK they will usually induce you between 10 days and two weeks after your due date if the baby hasn't come on it's own before then. Some places do it as early as 41 weeks. Some women choose to refuse induction and ask for extra monitoring instead. Some doctors might induce a woman on her due date if she requests it but that wouldn't be standard as induction does carry some extra risks for the mother and baby.
If the mother or baby have some health problem that makes it risky or extremely uncomfortable to continue with the pregnancy they can induce sooner. Only under extreme circumstances will they induce before 37 weeks because the baby is at high risk of having breathing or other problems before then.
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