Due Date

When is My Due Date and baby arriving ?

Now you are pregnant the question of when will baby be due becomes a fascination as you imagine when it will be. Will it be winter and the leaves fallen off the trees and nice and cool ? Or will it be in the summer, nice and sunny, but hope I don't get too hot and uncomfortable!
The doctor is available to tell you fairly closely as to when the due date will be.

There are a number of ways to work out the due date for baby and this document talks about some of them briefly.

Accuracy
The question of when your pregnancy actually started, can be unclear at times as some women know the date of ovulation or of conception, however, due dates are usually based on a woman's last menstrual period. According to a medical paper written recently, roughly 80% of babies are due within ten days of their due dates.

Three well known methods for calculating due dates are:

- Add 9 mths from the start of the last period, then take away 2 wks
- Go back 3 mths and add 7 days
- Ultrasound (Using average fetal growth curves)

People generally want to know when baby is due to be able to make the practical arrangements for their new life going forward. New house? Bigger garden ? bigger car ? Nursery decoration and spare room, money/ job , blue or pink etc etc.

This hasn't changed over the years and some ancient methods over the world have a remarkable accuracy about them. 700 years ago a Chinese scientist used a formula to calculate the due date and if the baby was going to be a baby boy or a baby girl with remarkable accuracy using a gender prediction method. Lunar methods and the various phases have also been used over the ages.

However bringing it up to the present day, the approached used most often is to add 9 months from the beginning of your last period, take away 2 weeks and that is you due date.

The LMP method

+ (add) 40 wks to 1st day of last menstrual period
- (take away) fourteen days

This method of working out your due date is called the LMP method, the last menstrual period formula.


The Naegle's formula

One of the simplest methods is the Naegle's formula and all you need is the 1st day of your last period and you then just go back 3 months. Finally add 7 days to that. This is your due date.

Ultrasound

This is said to be ninety eight percent accurate and dates the fetus via average growth patterns. Medical professionals advise that the first twenty weeks of your pregnancy generated by your 1st ultrasound is likely to be the most accurate. However there is a margin of error, which is generally accepted as just over a week

Finally - Make sure when you are working out when baby will arrive you take into consideration small changes like leap years.

As with everything to do with your pregnancy, if you are not sure and need advice, take professional medical advice from your doctor.




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