Tuesday, December 15, 2009

New Caculator For Your Due Date

With only 5% of all babies being born on their due date we've seen to many mothers shocked to of gone into labor two weeks early. An for the mothers that have agonized over being late just because of what doctors call a due date. With the new Due Date Calculator it gives you a range of dates instead of a single date. This is making it easier on the new parents as full term means between 38 and 42 weeks. http://mothersnaturally.org/naturalPregnancy/dueDateCalculator.php I recently learned of this due date Calculator from searching the net. On The new mom blog, here is her post:what is your due date(s)?

This definitely falls under the category of "wish I'd thought of it." It's a DUE DATE CALCULATOR that gives you a "safe range" for a term birth instead of pinpointing just one day. I typed in my LMP and discovered that my range is between Dec 2 and Jan 6th, not the precise December 25th every other calculator has produced. I'd much prefer to say to people I'm due "in December" than "December 25th". (For one thing there would be fewer jokes about what's in Santa's bag.) Only 5% of babies are born on the so-called due date. Full term can mean anything between 38 and 42 weeks, and it's time the calculators started to reflect that reality. We've seen too many mothers shocked to go into labor two weeks "too soon" or agonizing over being "late." So thank you Mothersnaturally.org for making normal pregnancies seem more normal!

I learned about this website from Jennifer Block's Pushedbirth.com. Blocks' book, Pushed, was one of my favorite reads of the summer. She does an incredible job explaining how and why maternity care in the US is such a huge mess. It's actually a page-turner, which is pretty amazing for a book in which every other line has a footnote. Rebecca and I were happy to have met Jennifer in person last Friday night when we all appeared on the Joey Reynolds overnight radio show. It aired at 3 AM. Lucky for us it was taped.
by ceridwen at 3:45 PM
in birth

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