Once a woman gets pregnant she and the people around her anticipate the day she will deliver the baby. Although calculating for the due date of the baby is not really that complicated and there have been a lot of websites online that offer a free due date calculator, accuracy is never 100%. What we can calculate is the estimated due date. We will never know the actual birth date until it arrives.
The importance of knowing the due date of the baby is important to women who want to plan their months ahead. Knowing the estimated date is especially helpful to women who have work so that they will know when to apply for maternity leave.
The exact day of conception is difficult to point out. What is often used as a basis in calculating the baby’s due date is the day of the mother’s last menstrual period. From the first day of the last period 40 weeks needs to be counted in order to know the estimated pregnancy due date. This is considered a rough estimate.
If the date of the exact conception of the baby is known, then calculating for the due date will be 38 weeks from that day.
The problem with counting 40 weeks is that it is only helpful to women with regular menstrual cycles. Most women do not have a regular period and that is why a different method of calculating should be considered.
Ultrasound is still the most reliable method to use in knowing the age of the baby. Usually the estimated due date given from the ultrasound examination will only be differ a few days from the exact due date. The reason behind this is because babies have a uniform development progress every week and month.
