The question: “How to count the weeks of pregnancy?” Is extremely important for mothers awaiting the birth of a baby. After all, it is necessary to monitor the development of the fetus, as well as determine the day of birth. The unit of time in determining the gestational age is considered to be a week, due to which the doctor sees exactly how the baby develops, whether it corresponds to his age, and what tests and drugs should be prescribed. This article will address the following issues: the definition of the day of conception, birth date, as well as the calculation of the pregnancy week by week.
How to determine the date of conception
Determining the approximate date of conception is very important when searching for the answer to the question: "How to count the weeks of pregnancy?" This day is a reference point for tracking pregnancy and determining the day of birth. Pregnancy begins to count from the first day of the last menstruation. Why is the calculation based on this (because at that moment conception had not yet taken place)? This happens because determining the exact number when this happened is very difficult or impossible. But when the last menstruation began, every woman can say. Taking this date as a basis, calculate the gestational age. In addition, even if the expectant mother knows exactly when there was a sexual intercourse, after which the pregnancy occurred, this does not mean that the conception happened on that day. The fact is that fertilization may not be right away, since the sperm can wait several days for an egg in the fallopian tubes.
How to determine the delivery date
Pregnancy lasts about 40 weeks (or 280 days) from the estimated date of conception. To find out the day of birth, you need to add 280 weeks to the first day of the last month. This can be done even easier: add seven days to the day of conception , and then subtract three months. The gynecologist will use the same method to calculate pregnancy.
Why the calculation is on a weekly rather than monthly
When tracking pregnancy, accuracy plays a big role. However, you can count by months only approximately. Indeed, in the month of 28–31 days, and in the week - invariably 7. According to medical requirements, it is customary to take this measure as a unit of time. In addition, calculating the week of pregnancy is much easier than a month.
How to count pregnancy weeks
In order to track the intrauterine development of the baby and what happens to the pregnant woman, a pregnancy calendar was created, scheduled by week.
This device is very popular among pregnant women. A woman’s awareness of the course of pregnancy makes the gynecologist’s work easier, and the pregnant woman’s much calmer (since the expectant mother can easily figure out how to count the weeks of pregnancy and compare her feelings with average values at the same time, making sure that everything is going well) . In the case of possible deviations due to the calendar, it may be time to notice them and see a specialist. In addition, with the help of the calendar you can scoop up information on the causes of various changes and find many useful recommendations and tips for each week of pregnancy.