[jsje2010]

Do you normally carry the baby the full 40 weeks or do you carry the baby the 9 months. Because I am 9 months in early April. But the full 40 weeks or what the doctors have wrote down would be April 22nd.

[Fr_Chuck]

Due dates are good estimated guesses. This is a question for the doctor as why he thinks that due date

[jsje2010]

They did the ultrasound and that was based on their best guess due to that. But couldn't he just be a small baby? I know all babies develop at a different pace I believe. My first due date was the 25th of April due to lmp and was moved to the 24th, and then to the 22nd of April based off ultrasounds. I was just curious because 40 weeks is 10 months and not 9 depending on how you look at it.

[Alty]

There aren't exactly 4 weeks in every month. Actually, if you do the math, and 4 weeks represents a month, than there should be 13 months in a year, not 12.

40 weeks is the average. They say that 45 % of babies are born 2 weeks before their due date, 10% are born on their due date, and 45% are born 2 weeks after their due date.

It depends on when you ovulated, your baby, you, your body, so many things. The 40 weeks is just average, and most doctors will not let you go past 40 weeks gestation.

[DoulaLC]

The 40 weeks is taken from the start of your last menstrual period giving you a 40 week gestation. Weeks of pregnancy are counted down from this date, however actual pregnancy likely did not occur until a week or two after this as usually women do not know exactly when they conceived, only a general time frame. Even when they do, every women does not carry a pregnancy the same number of days. This is partly why you would be " at term" or a normal time frame for giving birth anywhere from 37/38 weeks until 42 weeks. It is also why it usually is better to think in terms of how far along you are in weeks instead of months.

Due dates are first given by counting back 3 months from the first day of your last menstrual period and adding 7 days. They often are then adjusted after a scan where measurements of baby are taken to get a better idea of baby's developmental age. This still is not exact, and you will still have a window of several weeks at the end of pregnancy that would be considered normal to give birth in.

As Alty said, few babies are actually born on their due dates, with first babies statistically being born a bit later than earlier.