Term of pregnancy by the date of conception

It happens that a pregnant woman can not determine when the conception occurred. This can happen if the pregnancy is unplanned, when it is breastfeeding and the menstrual cycle has not yet recovered, or the pregnancy has already begun, and the months are still on.

Why is it so important to know exactly the length of pregnancy from the day of conception? Well, at least to find out the date of birth. After all, this is a very important day in the life of the future mother, and starting from the time when the conception began, the weekly countdown begins.

Of course, a child is not always born according to plan in 40 weeks, as it is written in textbooks on midwifery. Normal full-term pregnancy is the time from 38 to 41 weeks . And the baby, born in this period, is considered to be born on time. The term of labor depends on many factors - the maturity and readiness of the fetus itself, the state of the reproductive system of the woman (numerous births reduce the tone of the uterus and often end in birth just before the term), diseases of the mother and fetus, the way of life of the woman in labor who led during pregnancy. Multiple pregnancy also significantly shortens its duration, although not always.

How to calculate the duration of pregnancy by conception?

If a woman accurately remembers the time when she had unprotected sexual intercourse, this does not mean that this particular date is the day of conception. How so, you will tell? And the whole point is that after hitting the genital tract, spermatozoa do not lose their viability for another 72 hours. And the egg can only be fertilized for a certain time. So, plus or minus three days is an error in determining the date.

The most accurate to this day is the method used by obstetricians and gynecologists in women's clinics. Putting a pregnant woman on the account, the doctor will necessarily spend definition of term of pregnancy on conception, or it is still called «on last менструации». In order to avoid uncertainty, each woman is obliged to keep a calendar of her monthly cycle, because it is the original starting point from which many calculations are based.

So, there are two ways how to determine the length of pregnancy by conception, both of which reveal the approximate date of birth of the baby:

1. By the first day of the last month, a choice is added: 280 days, forty weeks, or ten months, because that's how long a normal pregnancy lasts.
2. All the same to the first day of the last monthly period seven days are added and three months are taken away. For example, the last time the month was on September 15. 15 + 7 = 22 we get on September 22. Now from September we count back three months - August, July, June. Here is the date of delivery - June 22nd.

Determination of the gestation period on the day of conception, which is carried out by a specialist, most corresponds to the true date.

Now there are many online services that allow you to determine the length of pregnancy by the date of conception. Thanks to them, without leaving home you can find out the same terms that the district gynecologist will calculate for you. It is enough to enter in the correct sequence all the important figures - the day, month and year of the beginning of the last menstruation, and the duration of the cycle in days.

Along with the definition of the gestation period, several other methods are used to determine the date of birth. This is a routine gynecological examination, during which an experienced doctor can determine the term without any calculations, ultrasound diagnosis is a fairly accurate method, but still having small errors, the first stirring of the fetus, when by this date five months are added in the primiparous and four and a half in the re-occurring ones . The latter method is not very common, but rather accurately determines the date of birth.