Pregnancy is one of the most beautiful periods of the life of the fair sex. It is worth noting that medicine knows two options for calculating the time of bearing a fetus in the uterus: obstetric gestation and real.
Where does it all start?
To begin with, it is worth talking about how fertilization occurs. Around the middle of the month, the female egg leaves the follicle and slowly moves through the fallopian tubes. It is here that she meets the male cell. Then the chromosomes merge, and conception occurs. Having descended into the uterine muscle, the fetal egg is introduced into the endometrium, and from this moment it can be considered that the pregnancy took place.
Determination of gestational age
When a woman realizes that she is in an interesting position, the initial task for her is to determine the term. The gestational age is calculated by weeks. Usually the time period during which the baby is in the mother’s womb is 40 weeks. A slight shift in one direction or another is considered normal and does not require any correction. Doctors distinguish between obstetric and real pregnancy.
Real time of carrying a baby
This period takes count from the moment when ovulation occurred. The exit of the egg from the follicle is the day from which the actual gestational age is calculated. In most women's clinics that monitor pregnancy, this calculation method is used. If you decide to take a blood test to determine the content of chorionic gonadotropin in it , then you will also be given a result that indicates the real value of the term.
Obstetric gestation
This time interval begins its countdown from the first day of the last bleeding from the genital tract of a woman. This term is used to calculate the estimated date of birth of the baby. Also, many women use this method in order to determine the gestational age. That is why so often women have discrepancies with the calculation made by the doctor.
Obstetric pregnancy and real
In most cases, the difference between these counting methods is two weeks. With a standard female cycle of twenty-eight days, the egg leaves the ovary exactly two weeks after the start of the last menstruation.
However, not all women have a standard length cycle. For example, in some women, ovulation occurs one week after the start of the last menstruation. In such cases, the difference between obstetric and real terms will be one week.
If a woman’s egg yield occurred three weeks after the start of the last menstruation, then in this case the obstetric period of pregnancy and the real one will have a difference of twenty-one days.
All situations described are normal. That is why the gestational age by weeks should be established taking into account the length of the woman’s menstrual cycle. It is impossible to equate all the fair sex under generally accepted standards. This can lead to an incorrect calculation of the gestational age of the baby.
Determine the gestational age by ultrasound
There are situations when a woman cannot name the date of the first day of the last menstruation. This situation often occurs if a woman has recently given birth or is breastfeeding. In such cases, the fair sex is recommended to be diagnosed with an ultrasound apparatus (ultrasound).
A short gestation period, which is still not possible to establish with a manual examination, is easily diagnosed by ultrasound. It is worth noting that a specialist can determine if a woman has a fetal egg in the uterus already starting from the fourth obstetric week. All measurements and determination of the term are calculated in this way by the obstetric method.
The uterus in the early stages of pregnancy grows across, that is, it turns from a pear-shaped to a spherical. Further, when there is not enough space in the pelvis, the muscle begins to slowly rise up. Its level increases in proportion to the gestational age, with each week becoming higher by one centimeter.
It is possible to determine the exact term by ultrasound only when an embryo is visible in the fetal egg. This is usually quite easy to do already from the sixth to seventh week of pregnancy according to the obstetric period. It is after measuring the length of the embryo blast that it is possible to calculate the moment when conception occurred up to one day.
Ultrasound examination during pregnancy
Throughout the time when the fetus is in the womb, a woman regularly conduct various studies. One of the most important is ultrasound.
If you did not have to do an ultrasound at an early date to establish the date of conception, then for the first time you will have to face such an analysis from 10 to 14 weeks. It is then that you can most accurately determine the time during which pregnancy develops. Also, based on this study, the term of the alleged birth of the baby is established.
Over the course of pregnancy, a woman will have to undergo such an examination at least twice more. This will happen from about 20 to 24 weeks and from 30 to 34. It is worth saying that these studies may have a large error. The date of birth of the child established by them may differ from the real one by 2-3 weeks. That is why it is so important not to miss the first screening and do an ultrasound on time.
Instead of a conclusion
If you do not know how to calculate the gestational age, ask your doctor about this. In most cases, it is enough to know the date of the last menstruation and the length of the female menstrual cycle. If necessary, an ultrasound is also prescribed. Carry out the calculation in the same way that the specialist uses. Only in this case you will not encounter discrepancies and will not fall into a controversial situation.