The Lie of the EDD - Why your due date isn't when you think

[KatieRabbit]

Thanks Alexis. It would be great for a mums and dads to be and all involved in childbirth to be aware of this. The 'Oh my EDD has passed, I must get induced etc etc' is unfortunately still something that I comonly hear among friends, rellies and colleagues!

[Neenee Jellybeanie]

The inaccuracy of ultrasound

First trimester: 7 days

14 - 20 weeks: 10 days

21 - 30 weeks: 14 days

31 - 42 weeks: 21 days

What does this mean? Is this the number of days a dating ultrasound during these weeks is likely to be out by?

[Ozziehoffy]

Great article! Wish I'd seen that to forward to my mum when she was hassling me to give her a DATE - I kept saying that it was soon (this was 4 days before he decided to come lol) and when the baby was ready, but she wanted a DATE because the doctor of someone else she knew gave her a date...ummm ok BUT it's only an ESTIMATE!!! So I went FINE it's 18th... lucky for me he decided to come a few days early to save his mummy from being annoyed to death! I've actually always said that pregnancies are in fact an average of 42 weeks long not 40.

[Laranna]

Thanks for sharing LimeSlice. It really aggravated me when I went to my first doc appt and scan knowing that I have a longer cycle and ovulate later, therefore knew when my EDD was likely to be, only to be told by the so called experts that my calculations were wrong and they moved my dates a week forward based on my LMP even though the scan proved otherwise. Thankfully, my OB actually agreed with my dates

When people ask me when am I due I simply say January and they get all funny when I don't give them an exact date, they can't process the idea or something.