9 months or how many weeks the pregnancy lasts
To simplify this task, almost everysite dedicated to the topic of pregnancy and childbirth, there is a special calculator, where you enter your data and get a number in response (gestation in weeks). Does it make it any easier? Does this figure answer the question, how many weeks does pregnancy last? Will she satisfy this young mother? Most likely, no, because she does not understand where exactly this figure came from. For her, she is no different from what the obstetrician-gynecologist writes in the map.
First, you need to understand how long a person's pregnancy lasts. All counted fairly accurately: 5600 hours, 280 days or 9 calendar months.
It would seem, to calculate the gestation period easily andsimply, as well as determine the date of delivery. So where is so much confusion? Some women are ready to argue hoarsely with doctors on the subject of terms, proving that they know better how many weeks pregnancy lasts for them, arguing that they accurately remember the day of conception.
Such confusion arises from the fact thateach participant of the dialogue chooses his point of reference. The woman is counting from the date of conception, because she knows exactly. But in this women are mistaken. The maximum that a woman can know for sure - the date when she had sex with her partner. And, by I do not know, this is the date she equates to the date of conception.
To understand what the error is, you need to understand thephysiology of the process. The most favorable time for conception is the day of ovulation. On this day, a mature egg leaves the follicle. However, the movement of the egg through the fallopian tubes takes several days, and all this time it is suitable for fertilization. Sperm can also exist in the female body for several days. Therefore, spermatozoa can get into the uterus in one day (it is his woman who considers the day of conception), and fertilize the ovule in another. So it turns out that the day of conception can not be determined, except that a woman will be constantly under the sights of powerful equipment.
That's why gynecologists count the termpregnancy in a different way. They count from the day when the woman started the last menstruation. Usually this date is known to a woman exactly, which means that there is a tight binding to a specific date. This system of counting is called an obstetric term. It is not difficult to guess that with a standard cycle of 4 weeks, the difference between the actual period of pregnancy and obstetrics is about 14 days. How many weeks does pregnancy last for obstetric terms? The answer is simple - 40 weeks. The obstetric month is 28 days, this is the length of the average cycle of a woman. It is he who takes the starting point.
The last question remains: how does the term of pregnancy consider ultrasound specialists and why is it so often different from what gynecologists call? It's still easier. They do not consider him at all. The development of the fetus has long been prescribed for weeks, and the figure in the ultrasound protocol indicates the stage of fetal development. That is, recording with one term or another means that your baby's development is exactly this term. The task of your doctor to compare the estimated time and development and determine whether it is normal in your case, is ahead of the curve, or slowed down.
A unified system for calculating the timeframe with reference toany exact date is necessary so that the gynecologist can compare the gestational age and the level of development of the fetus in order to understand how well the pregnancy is, whether there are pathologies or developmental delays. Therefore, it makes no sense to argue with your doctor about how many months your pregnancy lasts, because, firstly, the term of pregnancy is a conditional concept, and secondly, it does not allow you to determine the exact date of birth. It only helps to imagine in what period the baby's appearance is expected. And it makes a big difference how many weeks pregnancy lasts, no.