Could My Due Date Be Off?

As long as the baby is growing with the due date you were given it should be fine. Of course the exact due date is more than likely wrong as every woman's body is different and every baby grows at their own speed.
With my first I know for a fact that she was not conceived when they say she was as I was out of town for 2 weeks and it happened to be in the middle of those two weeks would have been conception. But she was born 2 days before her due date.
The same is true for my second. They say the baby was conceived at new years but my daughter was sick for a whole week with a high fever so there was no loving then!! We will see when this one is born.
Just go with what they say more like a guide than an actual day. Don't stress, Drs like to think they are right.

Don't stress about your due date! LOL I had two different doctors, and two different ultrasound techs and each of them had their own date. In the end, my doctor decided to induce us 1 week after his expected due date. They come when they're ready or your doctor decides its time. As long as you trust your doctor, just try to keep your due date in mind as a rough estimate because the baby waits until you can't stand being pregnant anymore anyways! Good luck

If you are saying you did not have sex during that week, your due date could be off. It is not an exact science, and very few babies are born on their due date anyway. Really it is just a guideline. You should be ready to go from the 36th week on because anytime after 37 weeks is full term, and many babies hold on for well past the 40 week mark (both of mine were born at 42 weeks according to their due dates, but were both under 8 pounds).

Normal gestation is anywhere between 38 and 42 weeks. Your actual due date could be any time two weeks before or after your "due date" which is calculated, not based upon you as an individual but rather an average number for all women regardless of their individual menstural cycles. Many care providers these days tell a woman she must be induced if she goes past 40 weeks however 40 weeks is not overdue and baby needs to finish growing. An induction has many side effects, some are very harmful to mother and baby. Get Sarah Buckley MD.s book Gentle birth Gentle Mothering, it's excellent for questions like these.

L. Brodrick
HBCE, CD

Like others say, of course the due date could be off - don't take the date to seriously. In the other question, you ask if short periods could affect the accuracy of the due date. I'm not aware of that being an issue, unless your ovulation date is irregular as well. Charting your cycles is the way to know you actually did ovulate and conceive, but now it's too late. Just make sure your doctor/midwife is not too strict about the baby coming by the due date, and know it's not too late to switch.

40 weeks is actually based mostly on tradition. Studies in the last 20 years find that the average pregnancy ist a little longer than 40 weeks - about 41 weeks for a first-time mom and 3 days after for those having a later baby. I wrote about this on my blog at lauranyman.webs.com.

do you know the date of your last period? that's usually how i calculate it...

The presence of the hcg hormone is what makes a pregnant woman feel the nausea. The hormone isn't produced until the fertilized egg implants into the uterus and starts sending signals to the brain to start production of various pregnancy hormones. Of course, some people are really tuned into and wanting to be pregnant, so they could have psychosomatic symptoms of nausea.

Due dates can definitly be wrong and keep in mind even doctors say they are a guess and can be plus or minus 2 weeks. I actually knew the date of conception with one of my children but the doctor wouldn't believe me and still calculated based on my very irregular periods. So through the whole pregnancy I knew their counting was wrong. According to their date, my baby was 3 weeks early, however she came out full size and didn't have any signs on being premature. I knew she was right on schedule! :)

Of course it could be off! Doctors take the date of your last period, even if you say that you know you didn't conceive two weeks later. Your illness could have pushed back ovulation so you may have conceived later than your last period plus two weeks. Or it could be one of many other situations. Life makes these dates estimated, for sure!