This 64-year-old actor’s second claim to fame is that he was born three months late and spent a total of 12 months in his mother’s womb.

After making the astonishing claim early in his career, the Hong Kong-born actor has been asked about it several times, always asserting that it is real.

In a 2010 interview with UK talk show presenter Jonathan Ross, when asked if it was true he was born after “12 months in the womb,” he said, “Yes,” adding that he was a “huge baby.”

Chan claims that his parents considered selling him to pay for the operation (a cesarean section) to birth him, but friends who lent them the money convinced them to keep him.

We know what you’re thinking, because it’s exactly what we thought: “Is it conceivable to be born three months late?” “Surely not?”

Dr. Joseph Sgroi, an obstetrician in Melbourne, believes Chan’s statements are “highly unlikely.”.

“It’s quite rare that you’d have a pregnancy that lasted more than 10 or 11 months.” Very unlikely,” he told Mamamia.
“It may just be that his mom had irregular periods, and she might have thought that she was three months more pregnant than she actually was,” says Dr. Sgroi.

He also mentioned that there isn’t much evidence of excessively late baby deliveries. This is because Australia, like most industrialized countries, simply prohibits late deliveries.

What happens if a baby is overdue?

To help us understand why, Dr. Sgroi first emphasized that the 40-week “term” is not medically correct.

A baby is considered “term” after 37 weeks of gestation.

“We refer to them as early term, when they are 37 to 38 weeks and six days old. We refer to babies as full-term between 39 weeks and 40 weeks and six days, late-term between 41 weeks and 41 weeks and six days, and post-term beyond 42 weeks.

“In Australia, the chance of pregnancies going beyond 42 weeks is in the order of less than five percent.”

Dr. Sgroi stated that “in most scenarios,” doctors will induce women after 41 weeks and three days, and that medical experts “definitely” do not want pregnancies to last longer than 42 weeks.

“Throughout the third trimester, we’re monitoring and making an educated assessment as to whether the pregnancy can continue or whether we should bring on labor,” added the physician.

The gynecologist stated that specialists advocate induction at this stage for a variety of reasons, the most important of which is that the incidence of stillbirth increases between 41 and 42 weeks.

“Between 40 and 41 weeks, that rate is around one in 1000 pregnancies. By the time you reach 42 weeks, it might be two in a thousand,” he explained.

“So the risk is still quite low, but it’s not zero.”

Dr. Sgroi stated that the possibility of difficulties, such as a baby becoming too large to deliver vaginally and a baby’s growth stalling, rises at late and post-term stages. Therefore, delivering babies before 41 weeks and three days is preferable for everyone.

The 2018 ARRIVE trial found that elective induction at 39 weeks reduced the risk of stillbirths and reduced the need for cesarean sections.

Dr. Sgroi went on to say that newborns delivered at 39 weeks developed similarly to babies born at 41 weeks of gestation.

He stated that pregnant Australian women should follow their mother’s intuition and speak out if they detect anything wrong with their baby, such as reduced movements.
As for Jackie Chan, it’s conceivable that his outrageous assertion is simply a translation error.

Traditional Chinese culture calculates people’s ages using the lunar calendar. This method of calculating age considers the newborn to be one year old at birth and acquires a year of age with each Chinese (lunar) New Year.

Jackie Chan probably tells the same narrative every time: that he was born as a one-year-old, unaware of the fuss. It seems that his family’s reaction to his cesarean delivery is what truly makes the event unforgettable for him.