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Months?
Lunar months? Weeks? Days? Trimesters?
How
far along am I anyway?
If
you are confused, you're not alone. While most people talk
about pregnancy being 9 months long (divided into three trimesters),
most health care providers refer to a pregnancy as being 40
weeks long, starting with your last known menstrual period.
You might like to know that this is also equal to 280 days,
or 10 Lunar Months. Phew!
OK,
so when is my due date?
The
traditional way to calculate a due date is to add 9 months
from the first day of the LNMP (last normal menstrual period)
and then add seven days.
For example:
1.Your LNMP was Feb 1
2.Add nine months, bringing you to November 1.
3.Add seven days, bringing you to your due date of November
8
4.Thus, your due date becomes November 8!
Some
people prefer to do it this way:
1. Your LNMP was Feb 1
2. Add 1 day
3. On your calendar, count forward 40 weeks to determine your
due date. Making matters even worse, many women do not have
typical 28-day cycles. Practitioners may adjust the EDD to
reflect the shorter or longer cycle length.
Remember, calculation of your due date is certainly not precise
(after all, women get pregnant in all the months of the calendar,
some of which have 28, 29, 30 and 31 days!). Also, all women
do not have a 'typical' 28 day cycle! This is why your due
date is usually referred to as your EDD or Estimated Due Date!
Use our Due Date Calculator
to estimate your due date.
As
if it wasn't already hard enough, some women may be unable
to recall their LNMP or may have very irregular or infrequent
cycles. When you visit your care provider, try to give as
close an estimate as possible. The closer the estimate, the
less likely both you and your practitioner will worry or experience
stress if your baby does not come on the EDD. Only about five
percent of expecting moms deliver on their EDD anyway!
An
experienced practitioner may also rely on physical clues to
determine the baby's due date. Most of these clues are most
evident within the first two months of pregnancy. They include:
Examination
of uterine size
Identification of audible fetal heart tones by doppler
Ultrasound examination prior to 26 weeks from LNMP
This
all sounds fine, but if you calculate the due date from LNMP,
aren't you counting weeks before conception?
Although
it may be confusing at first, health care providers begin
counting the pregnancy from day one of the LNMP. Yes, before
you even conceived!
Months
Measured as nine months on the calendar -- starting one week
after your LNMP.
Trimesters
Three periods of three months each. Months 1 - 3 are the first
trimester, months 4 - 6 are the second trimester, and months
7 - 9 are the third trimester.
Lunar
Months
Prenatal development is often measured in lunar months. Each
lunar month consists of 28 days, organized into four weeks
of seven days each. That means a pregnancy is 10 lunar months
long!
Weeks
40 weeks from the start of your LNMP. Gestation is 38 weeks
from conception to birth.
Days
280 days from your LNMP. No matter what method is used to
determine EDD.
No
matter how you measure your pregnancy, even the best estimated
due date can be inaccurate. Your baby will be born when he
or she is ready!
Talk
to other Mom's-to-be!
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