Before the advent of routine ultrasound in pregnancy, medical personnel estimated a baby's due date by the date of the last menstrual period and by feeling the uterus and determining the size to see if it matched the given due date. With...
At three weeks into your pregnancy (counted from the first day of your last menstrual period) it is still too early to take a pregnancy test. The earliest tests may detect pregnancy about five days before your missed period. There may be some...
A pregnancy test that diagnosed pregnancy the morning after conception would make a fortune. Whether they're hoping for a "yes" or a "no" answer, millions of women each year anxiously await the answer results of a test that tells them whether or...
Many pregnancies end in miscarriage before a women even knows she's pregnant; early losses are often called chemical pregnancies, according to the American Pregnancy Association. A full-term pregnancy is measured as 40 weeks, starting with the...
While many doctors' offices confirm a suspected pregnancy using a urine or blood test, practitioners generally follow up chemical confirmation with an ultrasound to confirm viability of the pregnancy. Ultrasounds help physicians assess the...
Many pregnant women have wished for a window into the uterus, to reassure themselves that their baby-to-be is healthy. Ultrasound provides such a window and there are several signs of a healthy pregnancy that appear in the first seven weeks of...
It usually takes about two weeks from the point of conception to test positive on a home pregnancy test. For women trying to conceive, it may be difficult having to wait that long. There are some very early signs that women may experience prior to...
Pregnancy symptoms will always vary among women. They also may differ from one pregnancy to the next. Most women will usually begin to feel symptoms around the time their period is due. Some may feel symptoms even earlier. If you suspect you are...
At six weeks, some doctors perform a sonogram, also called an ultrasound, to determine the health or viability of the developing embryo. This is generally the earliest that anything is visible on an ultrasound, although at this point it will not...
Human chorionic gonadotropohin, hCG, is a hormone produced during pregnancy. Cells that form the placenta excrete hCG once an egg has been fertilized and implanted into the uterus. HCG levels double every 72 hours and peak between eight and 11...
The time honored method for your doctor to assign a due date is to take the first day of your last menstrual period, or LMP, count back three months and add seven days. For example, if the first day of your last menstrual period was April 1, count...
Week 6 of pregnancy is considered early pregnancy and is about halfway through the first trimester. Some women find out they are pregnant around this time. Babies at this stage can be measured with an ultrasound, although many details may be...
Ectopic pregnancies happen when a fertilized egg implants outside the endometrium, or inner lining, of the uterus. While ectopics can technically include implantation outside the reproductive tract entirely, many are tubal, meaning that the egg...
Pregnancy is counted from the first day of the last period, so a woman who is five weeks pregnant is just one week past her first missed period. If you weren't thinking you might be pregnant this month, the possibility may just be occurring to...
Ultrasound pictures are created by bouncing high frequency sound waves off body tissue. A transducer is used to convert energy into sound waves and then record pictures on the ultrasound screen. Ultrasound is often used in pregnancy, not only to...
The first trimester, or three months, of pregnancy, can present many risks to the developing fetus. Because organs, facial features, skeletal tissue and limbs are developing at this time, any negative affect on the fetus can result in serious...
Blood clots that form in the uterus are called subchorionic hematomas or subchorionic hemorrhage. These words sound frightening, but they describe a condition that's actually quite common in early pregnancy. Subchorionic hematomas or subchorionic...
Ultrasounds allow physicians--and curious parents--the opportunity to see a developing baby while it's still in the uterus. While obstetricians can get information about a baby's growth from measuring the mother's uterus, ultrasounds allow for...
A miscarriage is defined as a loss of pregnancy before 20 weeks have passed. Epigee.org, a site devoted to women's health, points out that up to 25 percent of women experience one miscarriage during their childbearing years. A miscarriage can be...
Human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG, is a hormone produced by the placenta early in pregnancy. Home pregnancy tests read levels of hCG to give a positive or negative pregnancy test result. Because these tests don't determine the exact amount of...
Obstetricians have many tools available to help them determine pregnancy and monitoring gestation. The simplest home pregnancy test can detect the pregnancy hormone, hCG, but it cannot provide any more information beyond "positive" or "negative."...
The outermost cells of an embryo make the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG, to establish and maintain the pregnancy. A woman's blood or urine will only contain significant amounts of hCG when she is pregnant. In early pregnancy, levels...
Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is an amazing hormone that can signal the wondrous start of pregnancy or warn of the growth of a dangerous tumor. HCG can be detected in either blood or urine. Pharmaceutical preparations of hCG have been misused...
Human chorionic gonadotropin, also called hCG, is produced during pregnancy when the embryo implants into the uterine wall. Human chorionic gonadotropin is the hormone that pregnancy tests use to determine pregnancy. Human chorionic gonadotropin...
During many pregnancies, a doctor will order an ultrasound to check the status of the fetus, including its age, size, growth and health. The ultrasound uses high-frequency sound waves to project a picture of a fetus onto a monitor. The ultrasound...
Being pregnant is one of the most exciting times for a woman and her family. Many women will wonder very early in their pregnancy if they may be pregnant with twins, especially is there is a history of twins running in their family. The only way...
A baby needs a fully developed set of lungs in order to breathe well on her own and to provide enough oxygen for her body's tissues. A premature baby's lungs may be underdeveloped, causing difficulty with breathing and putting the baby at risk of...
Premature rupture of membranes is the early rupture (tears or bursts) of the amniotic sac, after 37 weeks gestation. Typically, a mom-to-be's water will break (or rupture) after the first stage of labor. When the membranes rupture prior to the...
Although your baby's lower respiratory system started forming shortly after its heart began to beat, the lungs are among the last organs to fully mature before birth. Most newborns come into the world ready to breathe on their own, but some don't,...
