Confused about it all

[_riley_86]

Hey,
Im alittle confused how pregnant i am....i know the date of the start of my last period and also im pretty certain of when we actually conceived... what im unsure of is.... am i 6 weeks pregnant or 4 weeks... 6 weeks is from the start of my last period and 4 weeks is from when im certain we conceived.... i wasnt pregnant when i was on my period obv...so why would you count those weeks...
It just doesn't make sense..
Any info shedding some light on this would be greatly appreciated.
Kind regards

 

[chattychar1990]

You count pregnancy from the first day of your last period. That's just how it works so would mean you are 6 weeks.

The title of your post says 38 or 40, just a little confused as your post talks about 4 and 6??

 

[_riley_86]

So your only actually pregnant for 38 weeks....

 

[chattychar1990]

So your only actually pregnant for 38 weeks....

No pregnancy is 40 weeks.

 

[night owl]

Yes pregnancy is dated from the first day of your last period, I think it’s always been done that way traditionally as it was difficult to pinpoint conception in the days before we had ovulation tests and eveything - technically conception could have happened at any time during the cycle, thats why full term is considered anywhere between 37-42 weeks, to allow a bit of variance

 

[night owl]

To answer your question though anyway you are 6 weeks pregnant in medical terms and they will continue to count forward from that for your 12 week scan, 20 week scan, due date etc (although it’s only been 4 weeks since conception)

 

[_riley_86]

So the first two weeks even if you know your not pregnant still count... and i count 40 weeks from then..

 

[_riley_86]

Wow... seems abit odd....
Thanks for the answers...6 weeks i am then... even though i know its only 4 weeks...
Thanks loads

 

[chattychar1990]

What Nightowl said!

 

[chattychar1990]

Wow... seems abit odd....
Thanks for the answers...6 weeks i am then... even though i know its only 4 weeks...
Thanks loads

Lol its not odd it's just how they work out your pregnancy. Like nightowl said you could have conceived at any time and most people don't know when. Like me for instance i don't know when i actually conceived but i know i am 8 weeks from my last period.

 

[TTC no2]

They count ur 1st 2 weeks for dating purposes only. Pregnancy is from week1 (being the first day off ur cycle) till 40 weeks (baby due date) and they allow 2 weeks to go over due bringing it to 42 weeks.

Docs date the pregnancy from the first day of ur menstrual so u are 6 weeks.

 

[WinterWolf]

Yes, for the first two weeks of pregnancy you're not actually pregnant. It's weird lol. Way way back (like hundreds of years ago) someone wanted to work out how long human pregnancy was. He had birth dates for the babies but no idea when to start counting the pregnancy from, so he went with the first day of the mum's last period. That's the last day he could be 100% sure a woman wasn't pregnant, as science couldn't yet explain how/when conception happened! Anyway he got data from hundreds of mums and worked out that babies are born on average 40 weeks from the first day of a woman's last period. Even though we now know when ovulation happens, it's still hard to pinpoint. They haven't updated the system since then since it's pretty accurate way of predicting when a bub will be born

But yes, you're right, when you reach 40 weeks of pregnancy your baby has only existed for 38 weeks.