Pregnancy Math

Right now I am in my 28th week of pregnancy. Most people would do the math and call that 7 months and then figure I have about 2 months to go. When actually I have anywhere from about 10 weeks to 14 weeks left which is about 2 1/2 to 3 1/4 months...how does that work? Well here is pregnancy math!

Everything is counted from the first day of your last period...then they add on about 40 weeks to that to get your due date. Back in the day (can't remember when), a study was done on a bunch of pregnant women. The women gave birth to healthy "full term" babies anywhere from 38 weeks to 42 weeks. The data collectors averaged that to be 40 weeks & thus "40 weeks" is used to determine your due date. Due dates are therefore strictly ESTIMATES and you should consider yourself safe to give birth about two weeks before to two weeks after due date so I like to say my "due month "is from about Sept 6 to Oct 4 to give people a more accurate estimate. So often pregnant women get very wrapped up in the due date and seem to forget that baby can really come at almost any time! So be more prepared and know that you have a big window of time that baby can arrive.

First Day of My Last Period: December 14, 2008

Add 40 weeks...

Due Date Equals: September 20, 2009

This data estimates that you conceived approximately 2 weeks after the first day of your last period, coupled with what I know about our "baby dancing schedule" we conceived either on the 26th or 29th (TMI?? LOL).

So if you simply count for 9 months from the center point of December 14th & 26/29 you get about Sept 20th. Making pregnancy last "9 months" as the old addage says.

If you go by days, there are 280 days in 40 weeks (the average of 38 to 42 weeks), 280 divided by 365 days a year = 76%, or 3/4...9 months is 3 quarters of 12 months.

However, if you go by weeks, of which pregnancy is on average from 38 to 42 weeks long, then divide by four (as most consider 4 weeks to be a month) then you get 9 1/2 to 10 1/2 months of pregnancy.

In reality, a month is actually 4 weeks and change so when we do the "divide by 4" conversion we get the extra time. Realistically, calendar wise, you are only pregnant over 9 months of the year. So to be as technical as possibly, today I am on day 201 of my pregnancy (according to www.fertilitygal.com) so I have 65 - 93 days left in the average pregnancy term (or about 10 - 14 weeks as I said earlier). My "week counter" starts on Saturdays, so on Saturday, July 4th I will be 29 weeks. There is also some contraversy over when the "third trimester" actually starts. Though, a variety of sources I have say it starts anywhere from week 26 to week 29, I think the majority seem to say about week 28 so I am going to say that I am officially in my third trimester, if not now then at least by Saturday.