how many weeks..?

Question

is in a normal pregnancy? is it 36 or 40 weeks? i'll be 24 weeks this friday and my due date is march 23rd, 2007. that is 40 weeks. i thought a pregnancy was only nine months (36 weeks). someone please help me. i'm confused about this and plus this is my first child.

Answer 1

its 40 weeks so really were pregnant 10 months!!!!!!!!!

Answer 2

Not all months have exactly 28 days. The extra days make up the extra weeks in a pregnancy. Do the math. Pregnancy is considered to last 40 weeks although two of them you aren't actually pregnant because they go from that date of your last menstrual cycle since it's impossible to know exactly when you conceived. Don't forget also that you are pregnant for nine FULL months..so when you turn nine months pregnant you have that entire month to complete before giving birth (in a perfect world..some people deliver earlier and some later but typically). Good luck. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Here is how this gets all mixed up:
When a woman first concieves (i.e. her baby is 1 day old), it is alled 2 weeks along. That is because docs measure the pregnancy from the first day of her cycle, not the first day of the life of the baby. So, by the time anyone can figure out they are pregnant with a home pregnancy test, they are at least 4 weeks (i.e. 2 weeks after conception). So, 40 weeks gestation (which is what is normal for a one baby pregnancy) is actually a baby who is 38 weeks old--about 9 months since most months have more than 28 days/4 weeks. Incidentally, twins are due at 37 weeks--not 40 weeks--or at about a little less than 9 months after they were concieved.
I know it seems pretty crazy that in one part of society, they do not consider a pregnancy to start until after implantation (which is about 2-4 days after conception) and in another part of the same society they count the pregnancy as starting 2 weeks BEFORE conception, but hey, that's the just the country we live in.
I hope that clarifies things a little! Congratulations on your little one! God bless!

Answer 4

I know exactly how you feel about the whole weeks/months thing. I delivered my first baby in Feb. Come to find out when I asked my doc he said to consider the nine months a full nine months. That still confused me! I never knew how many months along I was when people would ask. I think that since there are more than 4 weeks in a month that maybe that has something to do with it. I mean, there isn't exactly 28 days to each month. But a normal pregnancy is 36 to 40 weeks. If no answers help, just keep counting in weeks, that's what I ended up doing. Or maybe your doc could explain it better.

Answer 5

pregnancy lasts 40 weeks, but the first 2 you're not "technically" pregnant since you start counting from the time of your last period. if you count 40 weeks on a calendar, it's really only 9 months. Not every month is 4 weeks, or has 28 days!

Answer 6

A pregnancy is normally 40 weeks long wich is actually 10 months and not nine. We say 9 months because the trimesters are broken up with some "months" containing 4 weeks and some containing 5 week intervals. It is confusing...you are right!!

Answer 7

full term is 40 weeks, so technically you are pregnant for 10 months. the reason they do the weeks this way is because when they say you are, for example, 6 weeks along, you technically haven't been pregnant for 6 weeks yet, they just calculate it that way depending on when your last period was...it doesn't mean you got pregnant right when you had your last period, it's just when they start counting the pregnancy weeks...full term is 40 weeks, however, if you have a child between 37 and 42 weeks, you are still on track. before 37 weeks your baby would be premature and you don't want that!!
good luck!

Answer 8

Congrats I am also 24 weeks and due March 20th. Yeah it's 40 weeks it is confusing and all you keep thinking is man an extra month right lol....don't worry it will go fast.

Answer 9

A full term pregnancy is 40 weeks which techinally is 10 lunar months. However on a calander that is only 9 months.

Answer 10

k well when u are pregnant the doctors just say that there are 4 weeks in a month when in reality some months have 5 or six weeks in them so if you tak e 24 adn divide it by 4, u r six months along. i was confused to i will be 24 weeks on tuesday and i deliver march 27th plus its my first to. so congrats!!

Answer 11

The average female reproductive cycle is 28 days. Since your due date is calculated from the first day of your last period, you are considered two weeks on the day of conception. A normal pregnancy lasts 10 complete cyles.