Is pregnancy 9 or 10 months?
You’ve always heard a pregnancy lasts 9 months - there's a movie about pregnancy called “9 months” for gosh sakes, but then you get pregnant and things get confusing... you find out gestation is 40 weeks (and 40 weeks divided by 4 weeks/month equals 10 months right?) and start hearing other moms (or maybe even your doctor) say that pregnancy actually lasts 10 months. So what is it, how long is the average pregnancy?
Well, the truth is pregnancy, or gestation, is about 9 months.
Need proof? Here it is:
- We know that pregnancy, or gestation, is 40 weeks measured from the start of your last period
- On average, there are 4.33 weeks in a month (52 weeks in a year divided by 12 months equals 4.33)
- 40 weeks of gestation divided by 4.33 weeks in a month equals 9.2 months
- And considering 40 weeks is measured from last period and most get pregnant during ovulation ~2 weeks into cycle, pregnancy is actually less than the 9.2 month or 40 week estimate
So there you have it, pregnancy is not 10 months. It's 9 months!
