Pregnancy begins with fertilization (when a sperm enters an egg) and ends with delivery (when the baby is born). Pregnancy lasts about 9 months.
How can I tell if I'm pregnant?
You should suspect you’re pregnant if:
Symptoms of pregnancy include:
To find out if you're pregnant, take a pregnancy test. You can buy a test kit at a drug store without a prescription. Or you can get tested at a doctor’s office or clinic.
Home pregnancy tests
Doctors' pregnancy tests
Doctors usually do the same urine pregnancy test you do at home. But sometimes they test your blood for hCG. The blood test is even more accurate than the urine test. The blood test can tell if you're pregnant even before you miss your period.
Sometimes, doctors do a test to measure the exact amount of hCG in your blood. In the beginning of a pregnancy, your hCG levels usually double every 2 days. Checking your hCG levels several days apart can tell doctors if your pregnancy is developing normally.
When will my baby be born?
Your due date is when your baby is expected to be born. There are 2 ways to figure out your due date:
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From the date of your last menstrual period
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Using ultrasound
Your due date is 40 weeks after the first day of your last period. You aren't even pregnant during week one, because the 40 weeks is based on when you had your last period, not when not when a sperm joined or "fertilized" the egg. Usually the pregnancy starts at the end of week two or the beginning of week three, depending on when your body ovulates.
It's hard to add 40 weeks, so instead:
Ultrasound can tell just how pregnant you are. Doctors use ultrasound to measure the size and other features of your fetus. This tells them how many weeks your fetus has been developing. That lets them figure out the due date.
Babies are rarely born exactly on their due date, but it's usually close. It's normal for a baby to be born anytime from 3 weeks before the due date to 2 weeks after the due date. Babies born more than 3 weeks before their due date are premature.
How pregnant am I?
It's important to know how far along you are in your pregnancy. Doctors look for different problems and do different things at specific times in your pregnancy. They typically talk about how far along you are in:
Like your due date, the 40 weeks of pregnancy are counted from the first day of your last period. So your doctor might say "You're 20 weeks pregnant."
Doctors also divide the 40 weeks of pregnancy into 3 groups called trimesters ("tri" means 3).
