PREGNANCY

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FAQ About Your Due Date
Frequently asked questions on when baby is due

By Holly Bennett

When are you due? It’s one of the first questions people ask about your pregnancy, and we’ll bet you’ve got the date circled on your calendar. But don’t take it too seriously. Your due date is a useful approximation, nothing more. Here’s how it works:

How is your due date calculated?
Since most women don’t know exactly when they ovulate, your due date is calculated by counting 280 days (40 weeks) from the first day of your last period.

How accurate is your due date?
Only five percent of women actually deliver on their due date! But unless you are way off in your memory of when your last period was or your cycles are very irregular, your baby is very likely to be born within two weeks either side of your due date.

Elaine Herer, an obstetrician/gynaecologist at Sunnybrook and Women’s College Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, explains that because of research suggesting babies may be better off not lingering too long in the womb, most obstetricians recommend inducing labour at about ten days post-due date. “Watchful waiting” is another option you may wish to consider.

Is ultrasound a more accurate way of predicting dates?
If ultrasound is performed in the first trimester, says Herer, it can give you a more accurate due date, narrowing the “window of opportunity” for a full-term pregnancy to about two weeks. Later in pregnancy it is not so accurate.

When is a baby considered premature?
A baby born before 37 weeks of pregnancy is considered to be premature.

So how will I know when I’m close to going into labour?
You won’t, not for sure. But there are signs.

At a prenatal exam, your caregiver may notice that your cervix has softened, flattened or even begun to dilate slightly. With a first baby, that usually means labour isn’t far away. On the other hand, even women with hard, closed, long cervixes sometimes go right into labour.

At home, the following signs all suggest labour is approaching:

• More frequent Braxton Hicks contractions or menstrual-like cramps.
• Low backache.
• Loose bowel movements (Nature seems to like to clean things out ahead of time.)
• You lose your mucus plug: You’ll see a mucusy, bloody smear on your underpants or in the toilet. This can happen a few days before labour, or not until you are well into it.
• Your amniotic sac breaks, causing either a rush or a slow, odourless trickle of amniotic fluid. This more commonly occurs during labour, but if it happens first, contact your caregiver. She’ll want you to take some precautions against infection while waiting for labour to start.
• Yes, the nesting urge is real in some women: If you have an intense urge to clean the house or finish the wallpapering, pace yourself!

But, again, you may go into labour without any of these warning signs. Contractions that, over time, become longer, stronger and closer together are the surest sign that your real due date has arrived.

Originally published in Today's Parent, Pregnancy & Birth, Spring 2004