Dates in late pregnancy: what the trials can and cannot say

Dates are the rare food carrying a claim about one specific month of life. Pooled trials found the cervix readier for labour in women who had been eating them, by 2.45 points on the Bishop score, and the two trials did not disagree with each other. We badge that pool C rather than A, even though it is a meta-analysis, and the two sentences further down are why. The Bishop score is a clinician judgement, and no included study blinded the person making it. The advice that reached the internet, six dates a day for the last four weeks, rests on something weaker: an observational study of 114 women in Jordan who decided for themselves whether to eat them. Six dates is roughly 48 g of fruit and about 36 g of carbohydrate, which is worth knowing before you take a count of dates as a dose. The reviewers of the pooled trials are blunt about the holes. There is no standard for which dates, how many, or for how long. The timing was unknown in most studies. Nobody can blind a woman to whether she is eating dates, and the reviewers call that a high risk of bias. On the third stage of labour the effect appeared only when the non-randomised studies were counted, and disappeared once the randomised trials were included.

The numbers, per 100 g

What a real portion looks like

• The study that started the six-dates-a-day advice was not a trial, and the women chose for themselves. — 69 women eating six dates daily against 45 who ate none, at a university hospital in Jordan; the groups did not differ in gestational age, age or parity (n = 114) Evidence C source
  Cervical dilatation on admission 3.52 cm against 2.02 cm (p<0.0005), intact membranes 83% against 60% (p=0.007), spontaneous labour 96% against 79% (p=0.024), prostin or oxytocin use 28% against 47% (p=0.036), latent phase 510 minutes against 906 minutes (p=0.044)

What your body absorbs

• Seven dates a day for three weeks moved the bowels more often and left the gut bacteria as they were. — 22 healthy volunteers randomised, 21 analysed (n = 22 randomised, 21 analysed) Evidence B source
  No significant change in the growth of the bacterial groups measured or in short-chain fatty acids; bowel movements and stool frequency rose (p<0.01) and stool ammonia fell (p<0.05) against baseline; faecal water genotoxicity fell against control (p<0.01)

What it does to your health

• Pooled trials found the cervix readier for labour in women who had been eating dates, by about two and a half points on the standard score. — two trials reporting Bishop score, 320 women, 160 given dates and 160 controls (n = 320 for this outcome) Evidence C source
  Bishop score improved by 2.45 points (95% CI 1.87 to 3.04, p<0.00001) with no heterogeneity between the two trials (I2 0%); the review also found a shorter active phase of labour

Who this works differently for

• In the group eating ten dates a day, pumped milk volume rose from its own baseline, and the babies grew the same either way. — 48 pairs of breastfeeding mothers and infants aged 1 to 3 months, 25 in the intervention group and 23 controls (n = 48 pairs) Evidence B source
  Milk quantity rose 11% from baseline to week 2 and 23% to week 4 in the date group (both p<0.05); there were no differences in infant nutritional status

What is still unknown

• Nobody has established which dates, how many, or for how long, and the reviewers say so in plain words. — the trials included in that review Evidence C source
  The authors name as limitations the absence of any standard for the kind and amount of date fruit, the unknown timing and duration of intervention in most studies, and the high risk of bias from impossible blinding of participants, researchers and outcome assessors
• For one stage of labour the effect existed only when the weaker studies were counted. — randomised and non-randomised studies of date fruit around childbirth, pooled separately by design for each stage of labour (n = two randomised and three non-randomised studies for the third stage) Evidence C source
  The pooled effect for the third stage of labour was not significant when randomised trials were included and became significant when only non-randomised studies were analysed; the total duration of labour result rests on three non-randomised studies
• A review of dates across women's whole lives found 21 studies, and described their findings rather than measuring them. — 21 eligible studies spanning puberty, reproductive age and menopause (n = 21 studies) Evidence D source
  The review reports benefits described for haemoglobin in adolescent girls, for fertility parameters and sexual function in women of reproductive age, and for dyspareunia and ovarian reserve in menopause

The bottom line

If you are near your due date and you like dates, nothing in this evidence says avoid them, and the claim attached to them is softer than the way it usually gets told. Say it to yourself plainly. The strongest result is a cervix scoring 2.45 points higher on a scale a midwife uses, from two trials, in women nobody could blind. Whether that shortens your labour is a separate question, and the answer moves depending on which studies are let in. Talk to your midwife before you add anything in the last month, because ripening and induction are her call rather than a shopping decision. Two other findings exist and both are small. In 48 mother and baby pairs, the group eating ten dates a day pumped 11 percent more milk at two weeks than they had at the start, and 23 percent more at four weeks. Those are changes from their own baseline. A comparison against the control group is not in the sentence we can quote, so read the rise as something that happened inside that group rather than as the difference dates made. The babies grew the same either way. In 21 healthy adults, seven dates a day for three weeks made the bowels move more often and cut stool ammonia, while the bacterial groups measured and the short-chain fatty acids stayed exactly where they were. Anyone who told you dates feed your microbiome was ahead of that result. A review of date fruit across the whole of women's lives gathered 21 studies and described them without pooling anything, so read the puberty, fertility and menopause claims as a list of what has been looked at rather than a set of answers. One practical thing the popular version never mentions is that dates are mostly sugar. Medjool dates carry about 75 g of carbohydrate and 277 kcal per 100 g in the table above. Six dates come to roughly 48 g of fruit and about 36 g of carbohydrate, and ten dates to around 80 g, which at that same 277 works out at about 220 kcal. If you are pregnant and keeping an eye on carbohydrate, that is the number to take to your midwife, rather than a count of dates off the internet.

Sources

1. dat-dr-04 · prospective observational study
   The women who consumed date fruit had significantly higher mean cervical dilatation upon admission compared with the non-date fruit consumers (3.52 cm vs 2.02 cm, p < 0.0005), and a significantly higher proportion of intact membranes (83% vs 60%, p = 0.007).
   J Obstet Gynaecol, 2011 · checked 2026-09-22
2. dat-dr-05 · randomised controlled crossover trial
   Although the consumption of dates did not induce significant changes in the growth of select bacterial groups or SCFA, there were significant increases in bowel movements and stool frequency (P<0.01; n 21) and significant reductions in stool ammonia concentration (P<0.05; n 21) after consumption of dates, relative to baseline.
   Br J Nutr, 2015 · checked 2026-09-22
3. dat-dr-01 · meta-analysis of trials
   The intervention significantly improved the bishop score, compared to control group (MD = 2.45, 95%CI (1.87, 3.04), P < 0.00001)
   BMC Pregnancy Childbirth, 2020 · checked 2026-09-22
4. dat-dr-06 · randomised controlled trial
   Breastfeeding mothers who received 10 date fruits/day had an 11% increase in breast milk quantity from baseline to week 2, and a 23% increase from baseline to week 4, (both p < 0.05).
   Breastfeed Med, 2021 · checked 2026-09-22
5. dat-dr-02 · methodological assessment within a meta-analysis
   One of the limitations of this study was the lack of specified standard for the kind and the amount of date fruit that must be consumed to bring positive effects on labor progression and cervix preparation.
   BMC Pregnancy Childbirth, 2020 · checked 2026-09-22
6. dat-dr-03 · systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis
   However, the overall pooled ES of the third stage duration was substantially affected by RCTs because analysis of data based on non-RCTs altered the non-significant impact of the intervention to significant
   BMC Pregnancy Childbirth, 2024 · checked 2026-09-22
7. dat-dr-07 · systematic review without meta-analysis
   A total of 21 eligible studies were reviewed, demonstrating that date fruit consumption benefits puberty, reproductive health, and menopause.
   Sultan Qaboos Univ Med J, 2025 · checked 2026-09-22