Also, how accurate is the due date?
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I recall reading in “A Thinking Woman’s Guide to Pregnancy” that it’s because a French doctor in the 1800’s observed that it’s roughly 40 weeks from last period to birth and his own confirmation bias turned it into a rule. He was an authority on obstetrical care, and “taught” his rule to others who adopted it. One of the many situations in which a person’s clever idea becomes conventional wisdom and medical “truth” without actual scientific scrutiny. It’s been almost 12 years since I was last pregnant, and I don’t know where I put the book. Maybe someone can correct me, but I believe the statistics show average first pregnancies are 41 weeks and subsequent pregnancies are 40.5.
Of course today there’s the political complication of making it sound like a person seeking an abortion has been pregnant and “should have known” earlier than she did. It’s quite obvious to me that we can’t be pregnant before we had sex, so estimating ovulation from the last period, then counting pregnancy weeks from ovulation or the first day of the missed period seems more realistic to me.
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