It is very important to accurately determine how many weeks
of gestation during pregnancy follow-ups. In cases where the gestational week
cannot be determined exactly, problems such as preterm birth, development retardation,
water intake, and days pass may occur in the following months. In cases that
require a decision such as continuing or terminating pregnancy, a decision is
made according to the week of gestation. In addition, the normal development,
weight and measurements of the baby can be evaluated only by comparison with
the gestational week. Normal birth or cesarean dates are determined according
to the weeks of gestation.
Methods
used to determine the week of pregnancy:
- Ultrasound: Measurements such as baby's height, head
diameter, head circumference, abdomen circumference, leg length are made by
ultrasonography and pregnancy week is calculated. This method may not always
give exact and precise results. However, the smaller the pregnancy, the more
accurate the result. It gives more accurate results, especially before the 20th
week of pregnancy.
- Last menstrual period: The week of gestation is counted
starting from the first day of the last menstrual period. Although this method
gives the most accurate and very useful information, it can sometimes be
misleading. Conditions such as menstrual irregularity, late fertilization,
bleeding during early pregnancy may cause the last menstrual date to be
misleading. In this case, the corrected menstrual date is found using
ultrasound and other parameters, and the gestational week is calculated
accordingly. Doctors and midwives calculate the pregnancy week by counting the
weeks from the last period of the mother to this day with the calculator-like
table in the picture above.
- Ovulation date: The mother can know the first day of the
menstrual period clearly, but not the day of ovulation. The date of ovulation
is clearly monitored by ultrasound follow-up in patients who are given
ovulation treatment. The pregnancy week can be calculated by adding two weeks
to this date.
- Transfer date in IVF: In IVF applications, the transfer
date of the embryo into the uterus is already known, so the gestational week
can be calculated very clearly.
- Examination: Although it is no longer used due to the
development of ultrasonography and other techniques, manual examination in the
old years was very important in determining the gestational week. The number of
weeks of pregnancy was determined by looking at the size of the uterus.
- Fetoscope: When the baby's heart sounds are heard with the
device called fetoscope, it can be used as a determining point in calculating
the gestational week. Nowadays, it is not a widely used method, but it can be
used in regions where medical conditions are not sufficient and during midwife
follow-up. The fetoscope is a small tube or an instrument similar to a flurry.
Baby's heart sounds are heard, with one end on the mother's stomach and one end
on the midwife or doctor's ear. In this way, the first hearing of the heart
sounds is around 18-20 weeks, accordingly, the gestational week can be
calculated.
- Measuring the distance between the tape measure and the
fundus-pubis can give information about the week of gestation. Fusdus is the
highest point of the uterus. Pubis, on the other hand, is the region where the
pelvis is located, that is, the highest point of the hairs on the vagina.
- 2 MONTH PREGNANCY
- 3 MONTH PREGNANCY
- 4 MONTH PREGNANCY
- 5 MONTH PREGNANCY
- 6 MONTH PREGNANCY
- 7 MONTH PREGNANCY
- 8 MONTH PREGNANCY
- 9 MONTH PREGNANCY
- METHODS FOR DETERMINING THE PREGNANCY WEEK
- CALCULATE YOUR PREGNANCY
- ESTIMATED BIRTH DATE CALCULATION
