Upon learning about pregnancy, any woman will want to calculate her approximate date in order to plan a visit to the doctor, registration in the antenatal clinic and, of course, begin to prepare for a significant event in her life - childbirth.
How to find out the gestational age? It is easy to calculate it, you only need to understand how to do it. It is easy to find out the gestational age if you remember the start date of the last cycle, that is, the last menstruation, and count the weeks from it. This term is called obstetric. On the Internet now you can even find special services that calculate the gestational age in accordance with the start date of the last cycle and its average duration.
But if the cycle is unstable and often changes, this method can hardly be called reliable, so the logical question arises of how to find out the exact gestational age.
You can find out the period quite accurately, using the new generation pregnancy tests , which will especially help in the early stages, at the very beginning of pregnancy. Such tests determine the concentration of beta-hCG, a hormone that begins to be produced when pregnancy begins , and give an approximate result.
How to find out the gestational age, the obstetrician-gynecologist can also tell. As a rule, doctors use two methods: a blood test for a special indicator, beta-hCG, and ultrasound.
A blood test, especially if it is made closer to 10-12 weeks, can give an insufficiently accurate result, since at these periods the boundaries of the norm are already too wide to establish the exact date. But ultrasound can give a result more accurately, even the obstetric period. Measuring the size of the fetus and comparing them with the table of norms helps to establish the period very accurately, but it is called embryonic and often slightly behind the obstetric one. At the same time, the doctor can tell how to find out the term of childbirth, it is not difficult to calculate it.
There are several more ways to find out the gestational age. For example, you can learn to measure the height of the bottom of the uterus by asking the doctor to show how to do this. At first it will be difficult, but as the uterus rises, it will be easier to take measurements. Normally, this value is equal to the week of pregnancy.
There is a way that even doctors are guided by - the time when the expectant mother begins to feel how the fetus moves. This usually occurs between 18-22 weeks of gestation. Some pregnant women even believe in the sign that by counting exactly 20 weeks from the moment of the first movements, you can find out the date of birth.
The closer the end of pregnancy, the easier it is to establish its exact term using ultrasound. While in the early stages the measurement error or insufficiently good equipment could interfere, now that the baby is already large, it is easier to measure it.
You can ask different doctors how to find out the gestational age, but only the woman herself can accurately give an answer to this question, focusing on her own feelings and well-being.
It should be remembered that in most cases, babies are not born on time, but sooner or later for several days, or even for two weeks. This is considered normal, so do not worry. But it must be borne in mind that the date of birth, named by the doctor, is only an approximate period, therefore it is better to prepare for childbirth in advance.