Pregnancies are dated from the first day of menstrual period. The majority of women ovulate somewhere around the 14th day, then it takes around 2 more weeks until HCG levels are high enough to confirm pregnancy, so the embryo is implanted with enough HCG to show up around 4 weeks. Thus for the first three or so weeks you shouldn’t have any symptoms at all (other than usual symptoms of high progesterone, which can include increased urinary frequency and breast tenderness). You aren’t actually pregnant at this point because the embryo hasn’t successfully implanted. At six weeks I started to feel like shit, but in the few weeks I knew I was pregnant and before HCG got high enough to FEEL pregnant I had a great time.
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That’s because doctors date pregnancy from the date of your last menstrual period. You’re not really pregnant then, it’s just that you’re much more likely to know THAT date than the date of conception.
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Yeah I know that. As someone who has problems getting and staying pregnant I realised I knew more about it than my obstetrician. I knew the date of ovulation for my first baby but he still used date of last menstrual period. There were six days between these dates which caused some problems for dating scans and even deciding when I was overdue at the end. He really stuck with the first day of last menstrual period.
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that one IS the spoof scene in Spaceballs.
You think Donald watched Alien?!?! Too much thinking involved with that flick.
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Oh we can move Black History MONTH to another month. And for the romantic folks we can move Valentine’s day too.
because I type too fast like a moron. Thanks @Melz2
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Only a single day, now?
How generous!
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OH wait - doh - didn’t notice. haha!
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I didn’t notice that either…sorry was typing fast. YOU KNOW WHAT I MEANT DAMMIT!!! 
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Here’s my childbirth anecdote. I only have one biological child.
Doctor: so, if labor hasn’t started by Thursday, we’ll induce.
Me: Well, I spoke to my older relatives, and consulted our extensive family records, and I can document that no child in my direct family line has been born less than two weeks late for four generations. Mrs. Medievalist’s family didn’t keep those records, so I only have two generations there, but again I can confirm no baby less than two weeks late, and her father was five weeks late, although I believe that’s an artifact of the old method of calculating from supposed date of conception.
Doctor: Gestation period isn’t heritable.
Me: Well, what I’m saying is that I have some hard data that suggests it is. Do you have some alternative explanation for the evidence I’ve collected, that would indicate that some pertinent conditions that applied to this child’s forbears do not apply now? Is there any research on gestation period that you can direct me to that would help me understand why you’re saying this?
Doctor, to me: Gestation period isn’t heritable.
Doctor, to Mrs: If you listen to him, you will put your baby in danger. You have full legal rights to make this decision yourself, and you need to agree to induce on Thursday for the sake of your baby.
Me: What? This is an express train ride to an unnecessary C-section!
Doctor, to me: If that happens I will apologize to you personally.
Doctor, to Mrs: You need to make the best decision here. You don’t want to be responsible for harming your baby.
Thursday next, labor induced, 30 hours of continuous suffering later a C-section was performed, and the baby had an apgar of zero until they shot him full of Narcan. Meanwhile my poor southern relatives continue to let their babies come out when they are ready, and they are always late, and always healthy, and no C-sections required.
I never got my apology.
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whats crazy is parents can literally choose a day now with caesarians
so a potential 11 month incubation or year and a half would be cut short by the parents. I understand some mothers do it for health concerns, especially if they have narrow hips, but a lot of them are purely doing it for vanity’s sake.
I think sometimes the doctors schedule the C-sections around their golf schedules, and then emotionally manipulate parents into going along with it as described in my previous post.
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Women with narrow hips are usually fine, because hips widen during pregnancy. I was a small person before I had my kid, and I had no problems delivering.
What makes you think that? There might be lots of good reasons for a c-section that have nothing to do with “vanity.”
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Yeah, vanity seems unlikely to me personally, as C-sections leave a very noticeable scar. (My mom’s is a heinous, almost Frankenstein-looking thing, thank heaven for advances in medicine since then, and for not needing to have my kid delivered that way.)
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like in terms of not wanting any damage in the delivery zone . as a man they both seem awful to me, i don’t know what i would choose
My aunt is a nurse who was offered a job directing the LDR department at the Carlsbad, NM hospital. After she got there she was horrified to discover that the doctors were doing exactly this (either via c-section or induced labor or both), to the degree that baby deliveries were basically only ever 9-5, M-F.
She ended up not staying there very long.
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Indeed! I know women who have scheduled c-sections because of their lives or work (my husbands former boss did a schedule c-section). Some have to do so because of problems with delivering naturally (which has nothing to do with hips). It’s just a little tedious having to listen to people who are not directly physically impacted by childbirth and pregnancy judging people for their choices.
Yes, not wanting to pee a little every time you sneeze is totes vanity on women’s part.
How about you don’t judge people making choices about their health and life, as well as their families?
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I chose mine after my doctor told me I could totally labor, but with my UD I had a 75% chance of ending up with one anyway. So mine was indeed technically “elective.” Many women with my condition have delivered naturally.
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