One of the main issues of concern to all pregnant women is the date of birth of the child. Each of them strives for certainty, and wants to know exactly when she can see and pick up her long-awaited child.
Many women mistakenly try to calculate the date of birth, adding 9 months to the day on which sexual intercourse occurred. This method is not entirely true, since it is impossible to determine the exact date of fertilization of the egg.
Spermatozoa are able to live in a woman’s body and at the same time retain all their fertilizing functions for several days, and in some cases for a week or more.
Even very experienced specialists cannot find out the exact date of birth, it can only be assumed with an accuracy of several days in one direction or another. According to statistics, only 5% of women become mothers on the very day that the doctor determined. In this matter, everything is very individual and depends not only on the woman in labor, but also on the baby.
So, with multiple pregnancy, childbirth, as a rule, occurs earlier than the prescribed period and this is not a pathology. Other factors can affect the date of birth, for example, polyhydramnios, gestosis, diabetes in a pregnant woman, etc.
Most full-term and healthy babies are born in the period 38-42 weeks. How can I find out the date of birth? In modern medicine, four main methods are distinguished with which you can make rough estimates.
The embryonic method for determining the date of birth by ovulation and day of conception
Conception of a child can only occur during ovulation, when a mature egg leaves the ovary. This process occurs, usually in the middle of a cycle, the length of which can be from 25 to 35 days. It is worth noting that this method of counting is suitable only for those women who have a regular menstrual cycle lasting 28-30 days.
Knowing the day when ovulation occurred, it will not be difficult to calculate the date of birth of the child. To do this, add 280 days to the date that falls in the middle of the cycle. With extreme accuracy, the date of ovulation can be calculated using ultrasound. However, many women are able to determine this day also by such characteristic signs as increased sex drive, spotting vaginal discharge, aching pains in the lower abdomen, and so on.
You can also find the estimated date of birth on the basis of data on sexual contact, especially if it was single in the last menstrual cycle. However, it is worth considering that the time of conception may not coincide with the day in which sexual intercourse occurred. It is necessary to take into account such individual characteristics of the body, due to which ovulation can shift, such as illness, stress, great physical exertion, etc.
Obstetric method for determining the date of birth according to the last monthly
The most famous and widely used method for determining the DA is the calculation based on the date of the last monthly. That is why, the first thing a doctor asks a pregnant woman when registering in a antenatal clinic is the day on which menstruation begins. It is from here that the menstrual cycle is counted and its duration is calculated.
Based on the simple Negele formula, gynecologists can calculate and calculate the date of birth. To do this, they take three months from the first day of the last menstruation and add 7 days to it. For example, if the last menstruation began on November 5, then the PDD falls on August 12. For convenience, a special obstetric table was created on the basis of this formula, and the term itself was called “obstetric.”
This method is not very accurate and is suitable only for those women who have a regular menstrual cycle, 28-30 days long. Accordingly, with a longer cycle, the date of birth should come later and vice versa. With irregular periods, the date of ovulation is almost impossible to calculate.
Based on the obstetric method, a pregnancy calculator was created that allows you to calculate by the date of the first day of the last menstruation. Such a service can be used on the Internet and to calculate not only the term of birth, but also to calculate the most favorable time for conception. An interactive calculator contains a pregnancy calendar, a detailed description of which allows you to weekly monitor changes in the female body.
Establishment of the estimated date of birth using ultrasound
Ultrasound examination is the most accurate method for determining the DA for today. Since the size of the embryo in the first trimester of pregnancy does not have significant differences, this method is most effective in the early stages (up to 12-14 weeks) and allows you to make forecasts with an accuracy of one day.
At later stages of pregnancy, it is impossible to reliably predict the date of birth with the help of ultrasound. All children develop in different ways and have individual parameters. So, some of them are born with a weight of 2.5 kg, while others are 5 kg. And if you are guided by a similar method, then a short, fragile mother, carrying a child with the same constitution under her heart, it is easy to make a diagnosis called “intrauterine growth retardation.”
In women with a large physique, most likely, the fetus will not be small in size, on the basis of this, you can put a later period of pregnancy, dooming the expectant mother to unnecessary worries about a postponed pregnancy.
Method for establishing PDD by gynecological examination
The estimated day of birth can be set during a gynecological examination. Moreover, the sooner the expectant mother visits the gynecologist, the more accurate the gestational age will be. What do the doctors conducting a manual examination pay attention to? First of all, it is the size and shape of the uterus. This organ significantly increases in size and changes the pear-shaped to spherical.
