- Different ways to calculate pregnancy duration
- trimesters of pregnancy
- Which week, which month of pregnancy: how to calculate it
How long does pregnancy actually last? The answer to this question is only apparently simple. Pregnancy contractually lasts 9 calendar months. In practice, it can be very different. Doctors divide pregnancy into trimesters, but this division is also not very strict - it takes into account the three stages of pregnancy, not the calendar.
It is assumed thatpregnancylasts approximately 280 days, or approximately nine calendar months. "Book" covers 10 lunar months or 40 weeks - each month is four weeks or 28 days (lunar months are based on a monthly cycle of 28 days, as does the menstrual cycle).
Different ways to calculate pregnancy duration
But only 5 percent babies are born exactly on the appointed date. The norm is a pregnancy which lasts from 38 to 42 weeks. In addition, pregnancy in the medical sense begins several days before conception. For before a new life arises, a woman's body begins the preparations necessary for its reception. They start during your period. When the unfertilized egg is excreted along with part of the lining of the womb, another egg is already maturing in the ovary, which may be the starting point for a baby. Ifconceptionoccurs this time, the pregnancy will be counted backwards - from the date of the last menstruation. There is also a school that states that pregnancy should be counted from the moment of conception and then your baby is two weeks “younger”, at the same stage of development. So a pregnancy counted from the moment of conception lasts about 38 weeks.
trimesters of pregnancy
Dividing a pregnancy into threetrimestersisn't easy either. Recognizing that a trimester is three months is a simplification, not least because 40 weeks are not evenly divided by 3. This breakdown is arbitrary and takes into account important stages of pregnancy, not a calendar. The first trimester is assumed to last until the end of 12 weeks of pregnancy (10 weeks after conception). Up to about the 8th week of pregnancy, the so-called total miscarriage (usually it is a normal, slightly more delayed period and does not require additional gynecological procedures). The second trimester lasts from the 13th to the 26th week of pregnancy. The tummy isn't big yet, but the baby isn't as vulnerable as before. The third trimester lasts from the 27th to the 40th week of pregnancy, and actually until the day of birth. No problem when your baby hurries up a bitbirth, but it is important that the pregnancy lasts at least 37 weeks. However, should an earlier birth be necessary, modern medicine allows premature babies to survive.