Women who are going to become mothers, with great responsibility, approach such an important event as the expectation of the birth of a baby. In the early days, following the behavior of their body, they pay attention to any slightest changes that occur with it. Very often, a woman does not even realize the birth of a new life. The main question, primarily of concern to expectant mothers, is how many weeks the pregnancy lasts.
Pregnancy trimesters
The first trimester of pregnancy is considered quite dangerous. This is the period of the formation of the fetus, when any physical activity can be critical for the expectant mother. Therefore, women usually wonder how many weeks a pregnancy lasts in the first trimester. According to doctors, the duration should not exceed 13 weeks. By the end of the first trimester, the fetus is already framed.
How many weeks does a pregnancy last in the second trimester? From the 4th to the 6th month - the second stage of gestation, when the fetus begins to move. The duration of the second trimester is 13 weeks, at the 27th week it ends. The second trimester is considered the calmest period.
From the 28th week begins the final trimester. Considering how many weeks a pregnancy lasts from conception (40), the duration of the third trimester should be 13 weeks. At the beginning of labor earlier (37-38 weeks), the duration can be 11 weeks.
The third trimester is considered a busy period in pregnancy, so it is recommended to be under the supervision of a doctor during these periods.
First pregnancy
Having become pregnant for the first time, a woman often does not realize the severity of the event. It is important that she is mentally prepared for a new state. Many still very young future mothers are already expecting their baby, feel it, wanting to take care of a small creature, to protect it.
How many weeks does the first pregnancy last? Usually, in a young healthy body, pregnancy proceeds without problems. The baby is born after 38-39 weeks. Since this is the first conception, it is important that the expectant mother is under the constant supervision of a gynecologist.
In no case should you interrupt the first pregnancy. This affects the health of women, fraught with the deprivation of the ability to have children in the future.
Early pregnancy
There are two stages of pregnancy:
- The countdown of the onset of pregnancy from the first day of menstruation, in other words, the obstetric count.
- The countdown from the first day of conception is a true, real time.
Each woman has an individual organism. It is very difficult to determine the day when the embryo has taken root, so a gynecologist conditionally considers the beginning of pregnancy from the first day of menstruation. From this day, it is calculated how many obstetric weeks a pregnancy lasts.
The true period of conception is counted if the fertilized egg, reaching the walls of the uterus, freely penetrates into it and the embryo engraftment takes place. If the process proceeds normally, embryo formation begins.
The first week after conception is a rather dangerous phase. The body of a woman for a long time gets used to the embryo, perceiving it as a foreign body and in every possible way trying to reject it. After successful fixation of the egg, the formation of the placenta begins. From this moment pregnancy comes - the true term. In the body of the expectant mother, the hormonal transformation necessary for the adoption of the embryo begins.
Signs of pregnancy
There is a category of women who quietly endure the initial weeks (4-8 weeks) of pregnancy, almost without feeling any signs of a change in the body. In the other half, the process is quite complicated. Often they are difficult to tolerate the entire period, regardless of how many weeks a woman has a pregnancy since conception.
The first sign suggesting pregnancy at the initial stage is a delay in menstruation. Basically, a woman learns about the strange behavior of her body much earlier.
Earliest symptoms
You can guess about pregnancy in many ways, which the body signals from the very beginning:
- Lack of menstruation.
- Weakness and slight malaise in the morning.
- Heaviness and cramping in the lower abdomen.
- Frequent use of the toilet (urination).
- Bloody issues.
- Frequent constipation, gas.
- High sensitivity to various smells.
- Taste changes.
- Mood swings.
- Changing the shape of the breasts, color and size of the nipples.
- High temperature at rest of a woman (basal temperature).
Some of the above signs may be during the first conception, but not at all manifest during subsequent pregnancies.
Duration of pregnancy in weeks
In order to arrive at the correct answer, how many weeks a woman has a pregnancy, a number of studies have been carried out by scientists. It is generally believed that a pregnancy lasts 9 months. But in fact, it lasts almost 10 months.
Pregnancy monitoring in 120 women showed that only 4% of them became mothers in a period of 9 months. 60% of women give birth 10-15 days after this period. To calculate how long a person has a pregnancy in weeks, the Negale rule is used, according to which the baby is born at the 40th week, respectively, the duration of pregnancy is 280 days from the last month.
Even if you take into account women who are confident in the day of ovulation, it is wrong to consider it the beginning of conception. The calculations will still be conditional, since it is impossible to predict the speed of the sperm, the passage of the egg through the tubes of the uterus, the moment it enters the wall of the uterus. Accordingly, it is practically impossible to know exactly how many weeks a woman has a pregnancy.
Effect of a woman's age on pregnancy
Of considerable importance for bearing a child is the age of the woman. The older a woman becomes, the longer the gestation period is. How many weeks after conception pregnancy lasts for women older than 35 depends not only on the condition of the future mother, whose age requires special care.
An interesting fact: the future mother, who was born at one time with excess weight, pregnancy lasts longer. Calculations showed that every 100 g of additional weight at birth gives a woman one day of pregnancy.
20-30 years ago, a pregnant woman at 30 was called old-born. Today, these dates have moved up to 35-40 years. The reasons for this shift are explained by social status, career growth, and great employment. Therefore, pregnancy after 35 years has its advantages and disadvantages.
Negative aspects of late pregnancy
Some doctors insist not to delay the decision to have a baby. This has nothing to do with the goal of increasing fertility. The fact is that in fact there are negative aspects of late pregnancy. These include:
- Women aged 35–40 years have a rather low percentage of probability of becoming a mother. With age, malfunctions in the ovaries begin.
- Eggs that are unable to update at this age accumulate the physical negativity of the expectant mother, acquired during the period of life before pregnancy.
- Long rehabilitation after childbirth.
- The risk of preterm birth is increasing.
- The psychological factor.
The above items are not always manifested in women aged 40 years. A healthy female body without physiological abnormalities, problems related to immunity, is ready for serious changes, and the expectant mother can be confident in the birth of a healthy child. The state of health does not depend on age, but on lifestyle.
Benefits of Late Pregnancy
Many women are not afraid to give birth a little later than is customary in society. Since they see only positive aspects in not rushing with such an important decision. The benefits of late pregnancy include:
- Solid financial position. Parents who decide to have a child over the age of 35 are mostly financially secure.
- Late pregnancy is almost always planned. For many years, the life of the spouses lived together, is a big plus for the correct education of the unborn child.
- The body of a woman is rejuvenated after childbirth.
- A woman who has decided on a late pregnancy is psychologically tuned to changes in life.
What determines the duration of pregnancy?
Factors affecting how many weeks after conception a woman’s pregnancy will last:
- The health status of the expectant mother. Also important is the health of the father of the unborn baby.
- Mental state of a pregnant woman.
- The duration of the menstrual cycle.
- Sperm activity, life expectancy after getting into the vagina.
- The time during which the egg penetrates the wall of the uterus.
- Genetics. The attention of doctors often focuses on relatives in case pathology is detected.
- The development of the fetus, its internal organs.
- What kind of pregnancy.
If all these factors meet the standards, the duration of the baby should be 39-40 weeks. This is exactly as long as a pregnancy lasts for weeks in a person based on his physiological characteristics. But do not worry if the gestational age has already exceeded the specified period. The body of each person is purely individual and should not strictly meet the standards established by someone.