Tuesday, December 4, 2012



Pregnancy is the development of one or more offspring, also known as an embryo  or fetus, in a woman's uterus(womb)..Although pregnancy begins with implantation, the process leading to pregnancy occurs earlier as the result of the female gamete, or egg  merging with the male gamete, spermatazoon(sperm).This is called fertilization.
 A lot of things have to fall into place for conception to happen — in this case, timing  really is everything. To boost your odds, aim to have sex sometime between 72 hours before you ovulate and 24 hours after. (You're trying to accommodate the lifespan of both sperm, which survive for up to 72 hours, and the egg, which lives no more than 24 hours after ovulation.) Now's not the time to hesitate: Make sure your mate clears his calendar and that the two of you have plenty of time together to make love.

Healthcare professionals name three different dates as the start of pregnancy:
  • the first day of the woman's last normal menstrual period and the resulting fetal age is called the gestational age
  • the date of conception (about two weeks before her next expected menstrual period), with the age called fertilization age
  • the date of implantation (about one week after conception).
 Pregnancy lasts about 38 weeks from conception, but since it's often difficult to pinpoint exactly when egg and sperm merged, doctors and midwives simply count 40 weeks of pregnancy beginning with the onset of your last period. That's why you're already considered to be two weeks into your pregnancy when fertilization occurs.
 Events before completion of 37 weeks (259 days) are considered preterm; from week 42 (294 days) events are considered postterm


How to know that you are pregnant

 The beginning of pregnancy may be detected in a number of different ways, either by a pregnant woman without medical testing, or by using medical tests with or without the assistance of a medical professional.

Most pregnant women experience a number of symptoms which can signify pregnancy. The symptoms can include nausea and vomiting, excessive tiredness and fatigue, cravings for certain foods that are not normally sought out, and frequent urination particularly during the night.
A number of early medical  are associated with pregnancy. These signs typically appear, if at all, within the first few weeks after conception.
 Pregnancy detection can be accomplished using one or more various pregnancy tests, which detect hormones generated by the newly formed placenta. Clinical blood and urine tests can detect pregnancy 12 days after implantation. Blood pregnancy tests are more sensitive than urine tests (giving less false negatives). Home pregnancy tests are urine  tests, and normally cannot detect a pregnancy until at least 12 to 15 days after fertilization. A quantitative blood test can determine approximately the date the embryo was conceived.


  1. thank you so much doctor i have really liked the topic pregnancy it has helped me a lot after reading,i for one am pregnant but i never knew so many things which today you have put them clear and i have understood thank you so much am sure this is also a wonderful lesson to all pregnant women.