For example, if the first day of your last period was 1 February, add seven days (8 February) then add nine months, for a due date of 8 November. There are many online pregnancy calculators (see Baby due date calculator that can tell you when your baby is due, if you type in the date of the first day of your last period.Ī simple method to calculate the due date is to add seven days to the date of the first day of your last period, then add nine months. However, only about four per cent of women actually give birth on their EDC. The medical term for the due date is estimated date of confinement (EDC).
The average length of human gestation is 280 days, or 40 weeks, from the first day of the woman’s last menstrual period. In many cases, labour will be induced in the case of an overdue baby.
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Since some women are unsure of the date of their last menstruation (perhaps due to period irregularities), a pregnancy is considered full term if birth falls between 37 to 42 weeks of the estimated last menstruation date.Ī baby born prior to week 37 is considered premature, while a baby that still hasn’t been born by week 42 is said to be overdue. This is because pregnancy is counted from the first day of the woman’s last period, not the date of conception which generally occurs two weeks later, followed by five to seven days before it settles in the uterus. The unborn baby spends around 37 weeks in the uterus (womb), but the average length of pregnancy, or gestation, is calculated as 40 weeks.