Due Date Pregnancy
A pregnant woman would obviously want to know her due date or
her delivery date. A woman, wants to know the due date the moment she knows she
is pregnant. It is not a very difficult task to know her due date. There are
many methods of calculating the due date. Usually the due date falls after
completing 40 weeks of pregnancy. Today, usually if a woman does not face labor
on the due date or after the due date, the doctor suggests the woman to undergo
a cesarean operation.
How is due date calculated?
Pregnancy due date is the date when a woman is expected to
face labor and deliver baby. Due date of the pregnancy can be calculated on the
basis of the date of conception. The date of conception falls usually 20 days
after the process of ovulation. Hence the due date falls of pregnancy falls 38
weeks after conception.
Techniques of calculating pregnancy
The technique of ultrasound also gives an idea about your
baby’s gestational age. Ultrasound is an examination that is conducted for a
pregnant woman to know about the baby’s condition in the womb. It also helps to
know the gestational age. It is completely a painless procedure. This test can
be conducted within five to six weeks of your last menstrual period.
By the method of ultrasound the exact date of last menstrual
period can be known. And on this basis, the due date of pregnancy is known.
Doctors usually suggest to conduct sonography within the period of 8 to 18
months. Some woman face irregular menstrual cycles. They cannot exactly
determine their due date of pregnancy. When they undergo ultrasound test, they
can calculate the exact due date. But still, if the size of the baby is small
or big adequate information cannot be provided about the baby.
It is difficult to know the exact date of your conception.
Usually the last date of your previous menstrual cycle is taken into
consideration and the due date is calculated.
Today, due to the advance in technology and the invention of
internet, it is possible to calculate the due date of pregnancy online.
The best way to calculate your due date is adding 280 days
beginning from the first day of last menstrual cycle.
The techniques of calculating the due dates of your pregnancy
existed since olden days. In 1950, Dr. Naegele, circa was the first person
to calculate the due date. He determined that the normal period of gestation of
a woman was 266 days. He found out that the cycle usually lasted for 28 days
and the woman usually ovulated on the 14th day of her cycle.
He calculated the due date by using the following formula:
((LMP + 7 days) - 3 months) = Due Date
But the doctor did not take some points into consideration.
Not every woman ovulates on the 14th day of her ovulation.
There are many other factors that help to determine the due date such as care,
proper nutrition and the other screening factors.
Recently, the doctors have recommended that 15 days should be
added if a woman is to undergo a cesarean delivery. Even the first time
to-be moms face labor process 10 days late.
Anyhow, ultrasound is considered to be the most effective
theory for calculating the due date. The woman should conduct the ultrasound
test during the first six months of her pregnancy or else after six months the
exact due date cannot be calculated.
Medical experts say that there are several factors of
determining a due date. The other factors that determine the due date are:
a. the first time when the mom feels the
movement of the baby.
b. Heart tones heard from the Doppler
and statascope.
c. The uterus of the baby is measured.
There are times when the due date given by the doctors turns
out to be wrong such as implantation bleeding etc. but it is important for a
woman to know her accurate due date because she can prevent misleading parental
test results like maturity.
Most of the medical experts recommend doctors not to announce
the exact due date but to tell the woman about the monthly frame such as ‘By
the end of March’ or ‘beginning of April’. But if the woman knows the exact due
date he will develop anxiety as the day approaches.
If the due date passes away without the experience of labor,
then the woman develops more anxiety. Most of the woman face labor after
completion of 42 weeks. The American College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists (ACOG suggest that if the woman does not face labor even after 42
weeks, then labor should be induced to her.
Anyhow, it is a difficult task for a doctor to tell the exact
due date because the woman does not accurately know the date of her conception.
He can just approximately tell you the date of delivery.
Let us take an example for calculating due dates:
Say, the total gestation period of the woman is for 10
months. If the last period of the woman was from 1st of
January, then calculate 40 weeks after the 1st Jan and the date
falls on the 1st of 1st November. From the date
of 1st November, you can reduce 14 days and the due date will
be calucated on the 15th of October.
The 14 days are reduced from the 44 weeks because the total
period of gestation is for 10 months. The woman ovulates in two weeks when
calculated from the last menstrual period.
Some of the popular websites that provide comprehensive
information about the due dates are Parenthood.com, seopromolinks.com,
doctorndtv.com and much more. You just enter your last date, day and months of
your monthly cycle and you will get the result of your due date.
If a baby is born before 37 weeks of pregnancy it is
considered to be a premature baby.
A woman cannot know about the exact day of labor, but few
days before the process of childbirth, she will face some symptoms which will
give her idea about the delivery period
.jpg)
