#conception.

New Post has been published on http://awesome-facts.net/ysk-gestational-period-is-different-from-pregnancy-assuming-that-you-consider-pregnancy-to-start-the-date-of-conception/

YSK: Gestational period is different from pregnancy (assuming that you consider pregnancy to start the date of conception).

YSK: Gestational period is different from pregnancy (assuming that you consider pregnancy to start the date of conception).

There are a lot of people who share the inaccuracy that a woman is "actually pregnant for ten months, instead of nine," citing that the typical gestation period lasts for approximately 40 weeks.

While gestation is approximately 40 weeks, there are two things wrong with the above statement:

An average month lasts for slightly over 4 weeks. If you were to average out each month at 30 days the math would look like this: *40 weeks x 7 days a week = 280 days *280 days / 30 days in a month = 9.3 months gestation

Gestation begins on the first day of the woman's last period. Typically speaking, a woman will conceive 2 weeks after her period, which means that she is actually pregnant for 38 weeks, and the first 2 weeks was her body preparing for conception. The math for 38 weeks pregnant follows as: *38 weeks x 7 days a week = 266 days of pregnancy *266 days / 30 days a month = 8.8 months

Neither of the above indicate 10 months of pregnancy- even if you are counting gestational period as actual pregnancy.

Here's some reading for you: http://americanpregnancy.org/while-pregnant/calculating-conception-due-date/

If the mother has a regular period and knows the first day of her last menstrual period, gestational age can be calculated from this date. Gestational age is calculated from the first day of the mother’s last menstrual period and not from the date of conception.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/130806203327.htm

"We found that the average time from ovulation to birth was 268 days — 38 weeks and two days," said Dr Anne Marie Jukic, a postdoctoral fellow in the Epidemiology Branch at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (Durham, USA), part of the National Institutes for Health.

http://www.babycentre.co.uk/1-week-conception

This means the first 'official' week of your pregnancy is actually the week you started your last period. As a result, your baby's real age is two weeks behind his gestational age.