Determining Your Due Date


Pregnancy usually lasts 40 weeks (280 days) from your last menstrual period. Only 5% of babies are born on their due date. 50% of babies are born within 1 week of their due date. 90% of babies are born within 2 weeks of their due date. Remember that the baby could come up to 2 or more weeks on either side of the due date. Do not get frustrated or alarmed if the baby comes several weeks later than originally expected. Babies come when they are ready. Unless there is a medical emergency, you should generally refrain from inducing early out of convenience as premature inductions are one of the leading contributors to C-sections. If your body is not truly prepared for the rigors of labor, inducing early can cause a multitude of problems, not the least of which is an unduly protracted and painful labor.

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To determine your due date for a regular 28 day cycle, count back 3 months from your last menstrual period and add seven days. For example, if your last menstrual period was on March 15th, your due date would be December 22nd. Add 14 days to your last menstrual period to determine approximately when you conceived. In this case, your conception date would be March 29th.

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