How to Really Know Your Pregnancy Due Date.
A baby is almost always a welcome addition to a happy family. I have never seen a pregnant woman who is not excited over what comes out of her belly! But before you get carried away with the elation over the wonderful news, you need to have foresight on certain things, such as the time element of giving birth.
It can be stressful knowing that you are already having a baby, yet you have no idea or estimate on when he or she is due. This is one of the important pregnancy questions that most women have.
One of the often overlooked hassles in not having any inkling on how to know your due date is that you wouldn’t have any idea on when to take certain tests from the laboratory which depends greatly on how old your baby is inside your womb. Those laboratory tests need to be undertaken in resonance with your entire pregnancy cycle. One laboratory test taken in the wrong timing is something you would not like to bargain you and your baby’s life for.
A very practical advantage of knowing when the baby will come out is that you could prepare more for his or her arrival. You would not have to worry about packing things, transportation to the hospital, expenses and all of those mundane but important things you need to note during delivery.
Health care professionals, and specifically, your friendly OB-gynecologist, are more than willing to help you determine when the baby will come out. It will make their job easier if they also have an idea of when you will be confined under their care. However, if you want some initial information ready before you approach them, read on and try any of these given techniques that will aid you in your quest for more pregnancy facts.
Knowing your last menstrual period is one good way to help any woman determine when her baby is due. Assuming that you are have a regular menstrual period, you could be confident that the baby will most likely be due for forty weeks after you last had your period. That is roughly around ten months.
If you want to be more exact and your period falls every 28 days, you can use the Nãgele formula to know the due date. From the time you had your last menstruation period, add one week and then subtract ninety days from it. An exact year after that produced date will be the most accurate estimate of when the baby will be due. If you have a regular period but it’s more or less than 28 days, you can still adjust this given formula to get it even more accurately.
On the other hand, if you happen to be one of the hosts of women who do not have regular monthly periods (that is, 28 days) or did not exactly get to recall when the last period occurred, it is more difficult. No need to worry, though. You can still know when you are due by means of having an ultrasound. It is also known as the sonogram, where the baby’s age will be estimated more accurately based on length of fetus within the womb. This is best done from within the first four months. After that, the results would be less accurate since the growth is more rapid in the later stages of one’s pregnancy.
You have two options in the ultrasound method: one from the abdomen and one from the vagina. The method in the abdomen is more frequently used, since you will only be hydrated with a glass of water and then the instrument for ultrasound will be rotated around the belly to get a clear picture of the baby in the monitor. The latter method (endovaginal) involves the use of a probing ultrasound instrument to be inserted within the vagina and is considerably less comfortable than the abdominal method.
An important thing you must remember as you make the birth date estimate is that it does not always fall exactly when you expect it. You can make the estimations as accurately as you can, but only few babies get to be born in the exact date they were expected. You may not necessarily predict when you can exactly take your maternity leave, but at least, you would not be completely at a loss as you wait.