This post looks at what studies of dates in late pregnancy actually measured, and how much weight that evidence can carry. It is general information, not medical advice. For anything specific to your own pregnancy, ask your doctor or midwife.
What's actually in a date
Per 100 g, the USDA FoodData Central record for Medjool dates lists 277 kcal and 66.5 g of total sugars. Almost all of that sugar is glucose (33.7 g) and fructose (32.0 g), with 0.53 g of sucrose. The same 100 g has 6.7 g of fibre, 696 mg of potassium, 54 mg of magnesium and 2.7 µg of vitamin K. Those are nutrient amounts. None of them makes a date a treatment for anything.
Where dates fit in an NHS pregnancy diet
The NHS page on a healthy diet in pregnancy says you do not need to go on a special diet, but it is important to eat a variety of different foods every day. It also says you do not need to "eat for 2", even if you are expecting twins or triplets.
The same page says to eat at least 5 portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables every day, and that these can include fresh, frozen, canned, dried or juiced. Dates count. The NHS 5 A Day page says "a 30g portion of dried fruit, such as currants, dates, sultanas and figs, counts as 1 of your 5 A Day, but should be eaten at mealtimes, not as a snack between meals, to reduce the impact on teeth". Using the USDA figures above, 30 g of Medjool works out at about 83 kcal and 20 g of sugar.
The pregnancy page also has a list of ten healthier options for when you get hungry between meals. It includes ready-to-eat apricots, figs or prunes, and fresh fruit. Dates are not named on it.
What the labour studies found
A PubMed search for human studies of dates in pregnancy returns nine results, and seven of them are about labour and birth. A 2011 study at Jordan University of Science and Technology compared 69 women who ate six date fruits a day for 4 weeks before their estimated date of delivery with 45 women who ate none. It was a prospective study, not a randomised trial. The women who ate dates had a higher mean cervical dilatation on admission (3.52 cm vs 2.02 cm) and more often had intact membranes (83% vs 60%). Spontaneous labour occurred in 96% of them, against 79% of the women who ate no dates. Fewer needed prostin/oxytocin (28% vs 47%), and the latent phase of the first stage of labour was shorter (510 vs 906 minutes). The authors concluded that eating dates in the last 4 weeks before labour significantly reduced the need for induction and augmentation of labour and produced a more favourable, but non-significant, delivery outcome, and wrote that the results warrant a randomised controlled trial.
A 2024 systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis in BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth included 48 studies reported in 55 publications. These were randomised and non-randomised controlled trials of dates eaten in the third trimester, late pregnancy, labour or after birth. For dates eaten in late pregnancy, its meta-analyses found a shorter length of gestation and labour (except for the second stage of labour), less need for labour induction, "accelerated spontaneity of delivery", and higher cervical dilatation on admission, Bishop score and frequency of spontaneous vaginal delivery. Dates eaten during labour reduced labour duration (except for the third stage) and increased cervical dilatation two hours after the intervention. After birth, dates increased breast milk quantity and reduced post-delivery haemorrhage, and in the third trimester they raised maternal haemoglobin levels.
For the baby, the review found data too limited for a meta-analysis, though most outcomes were not substantially different between the groups eating dates and the standard care groups. It rated the overall evidence quality as unacceptable, with a high risk of bias in most studies, and noted that safety was recorded in only four trials. Its conclusion was that more well-designed studies are needed before dates can be firmly backed as effective and safe care around birth.
So the studies measured labour, birth and postpartum outcomes, plus maternal haemoglobin. None of them shows that dates make a pregnancy easy, and the largest review judged the evidence quality unacceptable.
Grades and texture
Medjool is a large, very soft date with a rich caramel taste. Piarom, an Iranian variety, is dark and semi-dry with a thin skin, and Kurma Piarom Selangor is one site named after it. Deglet Noor, from Tunisia and Algeria, is golden, translucent and semi-dry. Choosing between them is a texture preference, not a medical one. Grades such as A, AA or AAA are each importer's own size sorting, not an international standard.
Buying dates
If you are eating dates while pregnant, the NHS mealtime advice above is the part worth keeping in mind. For buying in Malaysia, see the Medjool Exporter home page or the wholesale Medjool guide, which is written in Malay. The About page says orders, from retail to wholesale, are delivered across the country, and that questions, quotes and orders go through WhatsApp.
References
- USDA FoodData Central. Dates, medjool (FDC 168191). SR Legacy, 2019.
- NHS. Have a healthy diet in pregnancy. Page last reviewed 21 April 2023.
- NHS. 5 A Day: what counts? Page last reviewed 9 June 2026.
- Al-Kuran O, et al. The effect of late pregnancy consumption of date fruit on labour and delivery. J Obstet Gynaecol. 2011;31(1):29-31. PMID 21280989.
- Salajegheh Z, Nasiri M, et al. Is oral consumption of dates (Phoenix dactylifera L. fruit) in the peripartum period effective and safe integrative care to facilitate childbirth and improve perinatal outcomes: a comprehensive revised systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2024;24(1):12. PMID 38166785.