Whens my baby due

Calculate your due date: How to find your baby's due date

Choose a calculation method Last periodConception dateI know my due date

First day of my last period

BabyCenter's Due Date Calculator

Use our pregnancy due date calculator by plugging in either the date of your last menstrual cycle or the date you know you conceived. The calculator will do the rest.

How is my due date calculated?

There are several ways your due date is determined. If you happen to know the day you conceived, you can count 38 weeks from that day to find your due date. (Human gestation takes about 38 weeks.)

But very few expectant moms know exactly when they conceived. Even if you only had sex once during your fertile period, you wouldn't conceive on that day unless you happen to be ovulating. Sperm can live for up to five days inside your fallopian tubes. So, it could be up to five days after you have sex that you release an egg (ovulate) and it gets fertilized by a waiting sperm. That's the day you conceive.

So, without knowing the day of conception, how does anyone determine a due date?

First day of your last period

The most common way to calculate your pregnancy due date is by counting 40 weeks from the first day of your last menstrual period (LMP). And that's how most healthcare providers do it.

If your menstrual cycle length is the average length (28-day cycle), your menstrual cycle probably started about two weeks before you conceived. This explains why pregnancies are said to last 40 weeks instead of 38 weeks.

This method doesn't take into account how long your menstrual cycle actually is or when you think you might have conceived. But generally speaking, women typically ovulate about two weeks after their menstrual cycle starts. And women are more likely to know when their last period started than the day they ovulated.

Conception date

If you do happen to know precisely when you conceived – say, if you were using an ovulation predictor kit or tracking your ovulation symptoms – you can calculate your pregnancy due date based on your conception date. Just choose that calculation method from the pulldown above and put in your date.

Note: Again, you don't necessarily conceive on the day you have sex.

IVF transfer date

If you conceived through IVF, you can calculate your due date using your IVF transfer date. If you had a Day 5 embryo transfer, count 261 days from your transfer date. If you had a Day 3 embryo transfer, count 263 days.

Can my due date change?

Your healthcare provider might revise your due date if your baby is measured during a first trimester ultrasound scan and found to be much bigger or smaller than expected for gestational age. This is more likely to happen if you have an irregular menstrual cycle length that makes it hard to pinpoint the date of conception.

Your healthcare provider will measure your baby during that ultrasound exam to figure out how far along your baby is and then provide you with a new due date.

What if I already know my due date?

If you already know your due date, you can use this calculator to see your pregnancy timeline. It will tell you when you'll hit various milestones, and when you may be due for prenatal tests and prenatal visits. You'll also find what your baby's sign and birthstone will probably be and which famous people were born on your due date.

How likely am I to give birth on my due date?

Of course, a due date calculation is always approximate, whether it's from our tool or from your doctor or midwife. Only 1 in 20 women delivers on their due date. You're just as likely to go into labor any day during the two weeks before or after.

Want more information about how the weeks, months, and trimesters of pregnancy are counted? See our pregnancy timing chart.

How soon can I take a pregnancy test?

With all this talk about pregnancy due dates, you may be wondering when you can take a pregnancy test. To ensure you get the most accurate reading, it's best to wait a few days after your missed period to take a pregnancy test.

At-home urine tests measure the amount of hCG (human Chorionic Gonadotropin) present in your body. If you take a pregnancy test before you miss your period, you may not get an accurate result, despite what some tests advertise.

If you're getting a blood test in your provider's office, you may get results sooner. These tests also measure the amount of hCG in your bloodstream, but they're more sensitive than at-home urine tests. Blood tests may be able to detect pregnancy six to eight days after ovulation.

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When does a baby have a heartbeat? When you can hear or see the heartbeat.

You may be able to see the beating of cells in the heart tube for the first time when you're about 6 weeks pregnant if you have an early ultrasound exam.

If you don't have a first-trimester ultrasound, you'll probably first hear your baby's heart with a handheld Doppler at a regular prenatal visit.

Your caregiver may be able to find cardiac activity with a handheld Doppler as early as 10 weeks, but the timing depends on a number of factors, including the position of your uterus, your belly shape, and how full (or empty) your bladder is.

When does a baby have a heartbeat?

At 5 to 6 weeks of pregnancy, there's a flickering of cells within the embryo's torso. This flickering is the developing heart tube.

At this point, the heart isn't the four-chambered organ we're familiar with. It's a tube-shaped structure that has a lot of developing to do. The heart tube bends and twists to eventually form the heart, including its chambers.

Because the heart isn't yet developed, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists (ACOG) defines this movement as "cardiac activity" rather than a heartbeat.

"What pregnant people may hear or see is the ultrasound machine translating electronic impulses that signify fetal cardiac activity into the sound that we recognize as a heartbeat," ACOG states. The group recommends waiting until the heart is fully formed before using the term "heartbeat."

A baby's heart is one of the first structures to form, because it's needed to deliver oxygenated blood and nutrients to other developing organs.

Some of the important steps in heart development are:

The heart tube twists and bends into an S shape, and the bottom of the tube moves up to form the two upper heart chambers (atria).
The middle of the tube forms the two lower chambers (ventricles).
Walls form to divide the chambers, each with an entrance and exit for blood flow.
Valves form between the ventricles and the aorta (large blood vessel) and pulmonary artery.
At about 10 weeks to 12 weeks, the heart is formed.
Small blood vessels form and fill with blood.
At birth, the opening between the two atria closes. Your baby is now getting oxygen from their lungs and not from the placenta.

What does a fetal heartbeat sound like?

Many women say that the beating of their baby's tiny heart sounds like galloping horses. The embryonic and fetal heartbeat is fast, about 110 to 160 beats per minutes.

If you hear a whooshing noise, that's not the heartbeat – it's probably because of movement or the monitor traveling past your placenta. Also, if you hear two heartbeats, don't assume you're having twins. You're likely hearing your own heartbeat in the background.

If the heart rate of the embryo or fetus is healthy, it's a sign that development is progressing normally. The chances of a miscarriage once you see or hear a heartbeat are less than 10 percent (at 6 weeks) and less than 1 percent at 9 weeks.

What if my provider can't detect a heartbeat?

If your doctor or midwife doesn't find your baby's heartbeat on your first-trimester ultrasound right away, it could be because:

It's too early in your pregnancy. Your due date may be off. (This can happen, especially if your menstrual cycle was irregular.) Your provider will schedule another visit in a week or two.
You have a retroverted uterus. Because of the position of your uterus, the baby can be just a little further away and harder to detect.
You're overweight. Extra padding between the ultrasound wand and the baby may make it harder to detect the heartbeat.
Miscarriage. If there's no heartbeat when expected (and ultrasound measurements confirm the age) or if cardiac activity was detected and now isn't, this may be a sign of miscarriage.
Ectopic pregnancy. In this case, an ultrasound wouldn't pick up heart motion in the uterus because there's no embryo there. Although ectopic pregnancies are never viable, they can sometimes develop enough to have heart motion. An ectopic pregnancy is a surgical emergency that can be fatal if not treated quickly.

How will I usually hear my baby's heartbeat?

Your provider will check your baby's heart rate with a fetal Doppler (a handheld ultrasound monitor) at each prenatal visit after about 10 weeks.

The procedure is completely painless. Your doctor or midwife will cover the device with ultrasound gel and move it around on your belly until they find a spot where the heartbeat can be detected. The Doppler sends and receives sound waves that safely bounce off your insides, including your baby's heart. The returning sound waves are processed and amplified by the device so you and your provider can hear the heartbeat.

You can rent or buy a Doppler for home use. However, some experts think a home Doppler isn't a good idea.

That's because it can take considerable training and practice to find and correctly identify a baby's heartbeat. You may not be able to hear the heartbeat – not because of an issue with your baby, but due to user error. It's also possible to hear the sound of blood flowing through the placenta or your own blood vessels and mistake it for a heartbeat.

There are better ways to monitor your baby, such as paying attention to your baby's movements and attending all of your prenatal appointments.

Learn more:

When will my pregnancy start to show?
Pregnancy in weeks, months, and trimesters

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Medical myths about childbirth: exact date, spicy food and waste of water

Claudia Hammond
BBC Future

December 3, 2017

help you figure out the events.”

Some of the myths about childbirth, about what affects childbirth and how it goes, have been formed for a long time and are unusually strong in our minds. Columnist BBC Future questions three of them.

1. During the first pregnancy, childbirth occurs later

The truth is that only 4% of children are born at term. Very often, childbirth comes later, but just as often - earlier.

When computer scientist Allen Downey of Olin Technical College (Massachusetts, USA) studied data from a 2002 survey conducted by the Federal Agency for Disease Control and Prevention, he found that first pregnancies were less likely to have a full term birth than first pregnancies. second (and so on) pregnancy.

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Yes, his analysis of the data confirmed that the first child is often born later than expected. But it is just as likely (compared to the second or third child) that he will be born prematurely.

Downey did find that first pregnancies are on average a little later than subsequent pregnancies, but only 16 hours (average) for fully-term babies.

But since we decided to deal with all babies, I think it's fair to include those who are born prematurely in our study.

Image copyright, iStock

Image caption,

It may seem strange, but very few babies are born at term

16 hours is not much, so the notion that first pregnancies are usually born several hours late days, or even a week, is not true.

This, of course, sometimes happens, and stories about it can often be heard from the lips of those who witnessed them. However, if we are looking for general trends, individual personal histories are unlikely to help.

It may seem strange to some that so few babies are born at term, but perhaps there is nothing surprising in this.

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Katerina Arkharova's blog. Dad's Day, or Who and what needs to know about childbirth?

The due date is usually calculated from the date of the last menstrual period. Not every woman can accurately remember this day.

Also, it's a big question whether we should expect each pregnancy to last the same number of weeks.

In one study, scientists measured hormone levels in the urine of women who were trying to get pregnant every day.

This made it possible to accurately determine when fertilization occurred and calculate the correct duration of pregnancy. As a result, it turned out that the terms may differ in some cases by as much as five weeks. (According to some experts, in general, a woman has only a 4-5% chance of giving birth at the calculated date. - Translator's note. )

In the case of a second or third pregnancy, the estimated date of delivery may also depend on the interval between pregnancies.

According to research, if conception occurs within the first year after the birth of a child, the second pregnancy is often shorter.

Some believe that it is necessary to abolish the indication of the exact date of birth altogether. Instead, women should be given a later date and told that they will have had a baby by then.

This will result in 96% of couples who are expecting their first child being spared endless worry and stress about the "right" due date.

2. Spicy food can induce labor

When the due date passes and the baby doesn't even think of being born, a good half of women decide to take matters into their own hands.

At any rate, according to one study, more than one-fifth of those American pregnant women who hope to induce labor turn to spicy curry.

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The theory behind this is this: a spicy dish can increase peristalsis (wave-like contraction of the walls of the esophagus, stomach, intestines, ureters, etc. , contributing to the promotion of their contents to the exit openings. - Translator's note ) - which, in turn will cause uterine contractions.

This method has never been studied scientifically. From time to time there are calls for a full-scale study to understand what can and cannot start the process of childbirth.

Image copyright, iStock

Image caption,

It has long been believed that spicy foods can induce labor

But even if spicy foods can induce labor in some women, the effectiveness of this method also depends on the individual tolerance of acute and on your eating habits.

If you eat spicy foods daily, it may not work at all or have a strong effect.

3. Amniotic fluid always drains suddenly and in large quantities

In films, we often see how an actress playing a woman at a long pregnancy stage depicts fright on her face because liquid has (as we guess) poured out of her, contractions immediately begin, the woman grabs her stomach and her immediately taken to the hospital.

In reality, things often don't work like that at all. Contractions may begin before the water breaks. Sometimes they do not start at all, and doctors have to stimulate them artificially.

In rare cases, the fetal membrane does not rupture at all, and the child is "born in a shirt" (it is claimed, in particular, that this is how Sigmund Freud was born).

However, in most cases, if the waters have broken and everything coincides in terms, then the birth is already close (if not at all).

One large study found that three-quarters of women whose waters broke went into labor within the next 24 hours, most without any stimulation.

Those who expect to see some turbulent flow during the receding waters will be disappointed: although this should be considered the first signal that labor is approaching, amniotic fluid may simply ooze.

Read the original of this article in English at BBC Future .

arguments for and against not delaying the first child

Anna Mozgovaya

studied the opinion of readers

Author profile

According to Rosstat, in the last 7 years, only 20% of Russian women give birth to their first child before the age of 25. The rest postpone motherhood until later.

Nevertheless, a woman who has not given birth before this age can still hear from those around her the term "old-bearing" and arguments in favor of the fact that it is better not to delay with the first child. T-Zh studied the opinions of readers about childbirth before the age of 25 and chose arguments for and against.

These are the stories of readers from the S-Z Community. Collected into one material, carefully edited and formatted according to editorial standards.

👍 Pros: getting pregnant is more difficult with age

Tatyana Khvatinina
thinks that age should not be ignored

Fertility decreases with age. My relative simply could not give birth after 30. The first at 19 years old - it turned out, but after 30, when she wanted the second, it didn’t work anymore. Doctor visits didn't help.

I understand that everyone's health situation can be different. And that with age, money appears, with which it is easier to endure many things, including possible complications of pregnancy. And I understand that it is very annoying when, at the age of 25, they start pecking out the brain and talking about old-timers. But there is still some truth in these annoying speeches. And after 35, you already need to hurry with children, because if you don’t have children yet, you don’t know anything about your fertility. Are you sure that it is so big for you that even at 40 years old a child will easily turn out?

/list/ya-tebe-ne-veryu/

“When you give birth, everything will pass”: 6 dangerous myths about women's health

I am surprised that some women pretend that there are no watches at all. They are. You can ignore them, hope that there is still plenty of time, but why convince yourself that only desire and well-being are enough for the birth of a child, and age is not so important?

👎 Against: thanks to the development of medicine, you can take your time

Alena Poray
believes in the progress of reproduction

In my opinion, every woman should decide for herself when to reproduce her own kind. Within reason, of course. But where this limit is is an open question.

Now the majority is guided by outdated principles and concepts, which is why the pressure on girls is so strong. Medicine is not yet an exact science, but it has advanced dramatically in technology, including in matters of human reproduction. This is a completely different level compared to what it was 30-40 years ago. Therefore, it is logical to give birth later than your mothers and especially grandmothers.

So to convince girls to give birth as early as possible is at least strange. I think that after 40 years, that's it. By this age, you are guided in life, and you have money, and the body is still relatively young. I have many acquaintances and girlfriends who gave birth at 40+, including their first child, and everything turned out great.

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👍 For: while you are young, it is easier to survive sleepless nights

Egor Alexandrovich
relies on youth

In favor of the position “to give birth early”, I can say that the younger and more playful you are, the easier it is to endure all the difficult periods of raising a small child and caring for him. Well, children are really cool and great. They certainly don't want you to make all the money in the world, as some people think.

But in general, age is not that important. The main thing is to find a worthy person with whom you want to have beautiful and healthy children at least at 20, at least at 45.

👎 Against: to have children, you need to earn good money

Waddles
heard strange arguments about children and money

Infuriates older generation saying, “Money is not the main thing. We raised you somehow.” And to the argument that you don’t want “somehow”, but want to live normally, they answer: “You’re mad about fat.”

None of the advisers are worried about problems with going to work after the decree, spending on kindergarten, doctors or a nanny. If only there was a child. Recently, I heard a new argument that surpassed all the previous ones. Like, if there is not enough money after birth, this is only for the best. So the child will eat less sweets, which means he will not have caries.

👍 Pro: it's pointless to build a career before giving birth

Anna Vassilie
thinks that the decree resets career to zero

? During the vacation, the level and knowledge will become obsolete, it will be necessary to fill in all the gaps. Therefore, it is wiser for a girl to give birth first, sit on vacation, and then build a career. Or a woman should be self-made and manage her time herself.

👎 Against: despite persuasion and promises, relatives will not help

Irina Wingermann
does not expect help from relatives

your child." Therefore, I am for a conscious approach: when a husband and wife weighed all the pros and cons before the birth and realized that they could handle it themselves. Because caring relatives who talk about watches, if they help, it is very peculiar: not to ask how to help, but to cause irreparable benefits from their point of view. And they will snap at requests, for example, to buy certain things.

👍 Pro: with age, a childfree man may change his mind

Daniil Popov
invites childfree women to think about the future

Unlike women, a man can conceive a child much later. The quality of the sperm deteriorates, but it does not disappear, unlike the eggs. A vile childfree can live with a woman for a long time, adhering to agreements not to have children, and at 60 years old change his mind and leave in order to have a baby. A woman can't do that.

Yes, now there are technologies with freezing. But in their youth, when everything works as it should, women usually do not bother with this.

/list/male-health-myths/

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Well, I am the child of those who were persuaded to give birth by arguments about watches and "it should be so." As a result, the parents gave birth to a little man, played for a year and scored. Then I grew like grass, on its own.

I am now 36 years old. In my whole life, I talked with my father probably only twenty times, with my mother a little more. Relations are cold, as if she lived with neighbors, at one time she seriously thought that I was adopted. I don't have any children of my own, of course.