Conception

Today in nursing school (I am currently in my OB rotation), we learned about how to estimate a pregnant woman's due date from the date of her LMP (last menstrual cycle). So the formula is to take the first day of your last menstrual cycle (when you first started bleeding... sorry, is that TMI?), add 7 days, and then subtract 3 months or add 9 months. This is called Nagele's rule and is less accurate for reasons such as irregular periods, conceiving while breastfeeding another child, after stopping oral contraceptives, etc. Doctors in clinics or the hospital will actually use a little wheel device with the same concept called a "birth wheel"...























We actually got to play around with a birth wheel today and out of curiosity, I discovered that I was actually conceived the day before my parent's wedding anniversary. hahaha. Certain birth wheels can also indicate the day of conception, which appears to be 14 days/2 weeks after one's LMP. So either my parents were actively trying to have a baby or I was the product of a some wedding anniversary "celebrating" :)

So in applying the formula, I was theoretically conceived on May 24th 1984 (my parent's wedding anniversary is May 25th). Therefore my mom's LMP must have been around May 10th, 1984. By adding 7 days and subtracting 3 months to this date, my birthday should be (and is) February 17, 1985!