How many weeks pregnant am I?
The only way to know for sure how many weeks pregnant you are is to visit your health care provider, who can provide proper prenatal care for you and your baby. According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, early and regular prenatal care is important in promoting a healthy pregnancy. Below are basic week-by-week developments that you can trace as your pregnancy progresses.
The start of the pregnancy is, by convention, measured by the number of weeks since the first day of your last period. This is abbreviated to LMP (weeks since Last Menstrual Period) and is about two weeks earlier than the date of conception. The reason that weeks LMP is used, is that prior to the invention of ultrasound scans to date pregnancies, women usually didn’t know the day they fell pregnant, so the only date that was known with certainty, was the first day of the last period. If your period is normally a 4 week, or 28 day cycle, and you have missed your period by one week, this would mean that you are now 5 weeks pregnant, (or 5 weeks LMP). Conception would have occurred 3 weeks ago. Termination of pregnancy at the Private Clinic may be performed from 5 weeks LMP.
