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aashi_9 · Jan 21, 2012, 05:47 PM

I got married on may 14 2011 and had my periods on 20th April last.. I usually have irregular periods... I m having baby this month but I am still confused about my conception as I got pregnant the very first month and the doctor calculated the date as per my last periods.. like from 20th April -20th may and on... can anyone help?I this chech the pregnancy calculators which gives a conception date which is not true because that's not possible.. are these calculators accurate..

DoulaLC · Jan 21, 2012, 06:00 PM

Hi aashi_9,

Was the 20th April period the last one you had or did you have one in May as well? Did you have an ultrasound during your pregnancy, and if so, was the due date changed because of it?

When dating a pregnancy, the doctors first start with your last period. Generally women will ovulate in the week or two after that. Not everyone will however, some women ovulate a bit sooner, some a bit later, and since you have irregular periods, trying to date a pregnancy that way would be even less accurate.

Often a scan will be done at some point in the pregnancy to measure baby. Early on, this gives a better idea of how far along the pregnancy is as babies tend to develop about the same in the early weeks.

The online calendars go with the averages for ovulation and likely conception, but again, many women naturally will not ovulate at that time, and irregular cycles make it more difficult to date.

If you know that conception could not have happened until after you were married, due to not having had any sort of sexual relation until that time, then the doctor's dates may be a bit off. You may actually be due into early February. Keep in mind that there is about a 4 week window of time that would be considered normal to give birth in at the end of pregnancy. So if you happen to have a due date of say 28th January, it would be perfectly normal not to deliver until sometime during the second week of February. A due date of around 28th January would be about what your doctor would give you if your last period was 20th April.