Dear fictitious gestational chart/ time line:
For a long time I have been rather confused by your nature. I've recently learned to except a couple of your crazy 'rules' such as the fact that the first two weeks of my 'pregnancy' I am in fact, not pregnant at all. I realize the reason for this is because 'most' women don't know the date of their ovulation, so I except it. I have also excepted, but am not happy about the fact that we are actually 'pregnant' for 10 months, not the universally known 9.
Let me break down my concerns week by week. We'll start with the first 'trimester'. The first trimester is usually depicted as the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. But do not be fooled. You have only been pregnant for 10 of those weeks, which does not add up to three months. So the first 'trimester' should go up to 14 weeks, not 12. Maybe this explains why my morning sickness never magically disappears at 12 weeks. So why is it that we tack those extra two weeks on to the beginning of the pregnancy? Why not put them at the end, distribute them evenly, or take them out all together? I guess the world may never know.
Now let's go ahead and make matters even more confusing, shall we? Even if we were to hypothetically take away those first two weeks in which we all know we aren't really pregnant, women still gestate for 38 weeks. That puts an additional two weeks on top of the mysteriously inaccurate 9 months of pregnancy. So where do these extra 2 weeks get distributed? Well, that depends on which piece of literature you are reading, which cell phone app you use, or which doctor you talk to. And again, let's not forget the two phantom weeks that also need to be factored in.
Here is a really out there concept, so bare with me. The extra two weeks at the beginning of pregnancy is there for one reason only, which is to calculate an EDD for those women who may not have known when they ovulated. When using this system, we make the assumption that the woman in question had a 28 day cycle and ovulated on day 14. This in itself is absurd since this isn't true in most cases. But putting that fact aside for a moment, why not continue using the 28 day cycle DD calculator, but not add the additional two weeks. For example: woman goes to the doctor. Doctor asks woman for her LMP. Woman states it was on December 1st 2009. Doctor gives her an EDD of September 7th 2010. But here is the kicker.......instead of telling her she is 7 weeks pregnant, he tells her she is 5 weeks pregnant. Now this may be hard for providers to wrap their heads around I guess. I realize all the info online about pregnancy would have to be tweaked a bit. But wouldn't this make for a much easier comprehension all around?
During my last pregnancy, I bought a book to track my progress. The book operated in this way, knocking off those two weeks all together. I loved the book, but it made it confusing for me. Every doctor appointment I had I was told that I was at a different week. If only everyone could get on board with the system this book used. For once the gestational age of the mother and the fetal age would match up. Oh, but that would just be too easy wouldn't it?
On Sunday I will be reaching a truly exciting milestone in my pregnancy. I will have completed my 12th week of 'gestation'. But as you can see by my concerns here, I'm sure you will understand that I will have a hard time celebrating the end of my first 'trimester' as we all know how untrue that is. I won't be expecting my morning sickness or exhaustion to vanish. And I won't be expecting my belly to suddenly become round and pregnant looking. But I will know that for 10 weeks I have been creating and growing a tiny baby. I have hopes that when my children are having children I won't have to explain this silly system to them.
Sincerely,
Just some gestating female
(To you fellow preggos, I woke up at 1am last night and these thoughts circled my head for hours at the face of pregnancy insomnia. Maybe writing it down will assist in someone else getting a full nights sleep
)
For a long time I have been rather confused by your nature. I've recently learned to except a couple of your crazy 'rules' such as the fact that the first two weeks of my 'pregnancy' I am in fact, not pregnant at all. I realize the reason for this is because 'most' women don't know the date of their ovulation, so I except it. I have also excepted, but am not happy about the fact that we are actually 'pregnant' for 10 months, not the universally known 9.
Let me break down my concerns week by week. We'll start with the first 'trimester'. The first trimester is usually depicted as the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. But do not be fooled. You have only been pregnant for 10 of those weeks, which does not add up to three months. So the first 'trimester' should go up to 14 weeks, not 12. Maybe this explains why my morning sickness never magically disappears at 12 weeks. So why is it that we tack those extra two weeks on to the beginning of the pregnancy? Why not put them at the end, distribute them evenly, or take them out all together? I guess the world may never know.
Now let's go ahead and make matters even more confusing, shall we? Even if we were to hypothetically take away those first two weeks in which we all know we aren't really pregnant, women still gestate for 38 weeks. That puts an additional two weeks on top of the mysteriously inaccurate 9 months of pregnancy. So where do these extra 2 weeks get distributed? Well, that depends on which piece of literature you are reading, which cell phone app you use, or which doctor you talk to. And again, let's not forget the two phantom weeks that also need to be factored in.
Here is a really out there concept, so bare with me. The extra two weeks at the beginning of pregnancy is there for one reason only, which is to calculate an EDD for those women who may not have known when they ovulated. When using this system, we make the assumption that the woman in question had a 28 day cycle and ovulated on day 14. This in itself is absurd since this isn't true in most cases. But putting that fact aside for a moment, why not continue using the 28 day cycle DD calculator, but not add the additional two weeks. For example: woman goes to the doctor. Doctor asks woman for her LMP. Woman states it was on December 1st 2009. Doctor gives her an EDD of September 7th 2010. But here is the kicker.......instead of telling her she is 7 weeks pregnant, he tells her she is 5 weeks pregnant. Now this may be hard for providers to wrap their heads around I guess. I realize all the info online about pregnancy would have to be tweaked a bit. But wouldn't this make for a much easier comprehension all around?
During my last pregnancy, I bought a book to track my progress. The book operated in this way, knocking off those two weeks all together. I loved the book, but it made it confusing for me. Every doctor appointment I had I was told that I was at a different week. If only everyone could get on board with the system this book used. For once the gestational age of the mother and the fetal age would match up. Oh, but that would just be too easy wouldn't it?
On Sunday I will be reaching a truly exciting milestone in my pregnancy. I will have completed my 12th week of 'gestation'. But as you can see by my concerns here, I'm sure you will understand that I will have a hard time celebrating the end of my first 'trimester' as we all know how untrue that is. I won't be expecting my morning sickness or exhaustion to vanish. And I won't be expecting my belly to suddenly become round and pregnant looking. But I will know that for 10 weeks I have been creating and growing a tiny baby. I have hopes that when my children are having children I won't have to explain this silly system to them.
Sincerely,
Just some gestating female
(To you fellow preggos, I woke up at 1am last night and these thoughts circled my head for hours at the face of pregnancy insomnia. Maybe writing it down will assist in someone else getting a full nights sleep
)
to keep women out of tune with their bodies. Probably goes back to the hatred/persecution of witches and stuff. (Actually serious on that front.)
Most of the time I have to look on my siggy at another message board to tell me how far along I am. I just know it is not June yet.
I hope the system has changed some but I doubt it.
