A woman’s period is caused by her uterus shedding the lining it builds every month in which a fertilized egg can attach itself and a pregnancy can develop. When a woman does not get pregnant, the lining is not needed and the uterine wall is shed, causing the bleeding and clots that a woman experiences approximately once a month. When a woman gets pregnant, and the fertilized egg is implanted into the uterine wall, the uterus does not shed, and there is no monthly period.

When a woman gets pregnant she should immediately start missing her periods, although this isn’t always the case. Sometimes women will have a period that is much lighter than normal, or rarely have a normal period for the first month. There are even a few recorded situations where a woman has continued to have a period throughout her pregnancy. Sometimes there might be a little spotting when the period should have come, making a woman believe that she had her period when she is in fact pregnant. This spotting is called implantation bleeding.

Just because a woman misses her period doesn’t automatically mean that she is pregnant. There are other reasons why her period might not have come that month. Stress and life changes can have a big effect on the regularity of a woman’s period on track. Also, if a woman has recently lost or gained a lot of weight, her menstrual cycle could be affected. Starting, stopping or changing her birth control during a cycle could also cause a missed period. Breastfeeding can also delay the return of a normal period cycle by up to a few months.

There are many ways to discover if your missed period means that you are pregnant, but the most common and easiest is to purchase a home pregnancy test. Most of these are close to 99% accurate and can tell a woman if she is expecting a baby, or if she is just “late”. When in doubt, be sure to call your doctor immediately.

Babies Online wants to make it easier for every woman to find out her baby’s due date prior to that first appointment, by offering both helpful information and our fantastic due date calculator which is free for you to use.

The first thing you need to know in order to use our due date calculator is the first day of your last menstrual cycle. It is very difficult to get an estimated due date, without an early ultrasound, even from your doctor, unless you know this date. Calculators take into account your last period and assume conception took place a week after that date. They then add nine months to that date to give you the estimated due date.

It is important to remember that these calculations are just estimates – you should not count on your baby coming on that day. Only about 20% of babies come on the actual due date that was calculated. The other 80% are split between coming before the estimated due date, and after. Since a pregnancy is considered full term at 37 weeks (3 weeks before the calculated due date) and is generally not considered to be dangerously overdue till after 42 weeks (2 weeks after the calculated due date), this early date gives you an estimated time span of when your baby will come.

As your pregnancy progresses and you have ultrasounds done to check your baby, it is possible that your doctor will update and change your due date at which to reflect the rate at which your babyhas grown, using measurements taken in the ultrasound. In most cases, this will only change a few days or a week in either direction.

After you get that positive result from your pregnancy test, knowing the date your baby should be born gives you something to focus on, and to look forward to for the months to come. It is likely that for many women, the next nine months will seem the longest nine months of her life. Have no fear though. Your baby will arrive, whether he makes an appearance on your calculated due date or surprises you on another date.

Testing Methods
Normally testing will first be done on your newborn before he leaves the hospital, and it is recommended that it is done while your baby sleeps. There are two ways that the doctors may test your baby’s hearing.

The first one is called otoacoustic emissions testing (OAE) and it involves the detection of emissions that are produced by a normal ear in response to incoming sounds. In order to do this the doctor or nurse will insert a small plug housing a microphone in your baby’s ear and sound is then projected into the ear via the plug. If your baby has hearing loss then no emissions will be detected.

The other common test involves auditory brainstem responses (ABR), which are measured by placing electrodes on the baby’s head. While he sleeps, sounds are introduced to the baby through tiny earphones. The electrodes then measure if the brain is detecting the sounds. Even while your baby sleeps there should be some activity in the brain if your baby can hear like normal.

If Hearing Loss Is Not Detected Early
Some parents may wonder what the big deal is if hearing loss is not detected as early as possible in their baby. The answer is simple. Babies learn speech from the sounds around them. They learn to interact and talk buy hearing other people talk. If your baby can not hear sounds, then he could have a delay in speech development making it hard to ever talk to people and interact in society. It could also lead to teasing and hurt feelings once your baby starts school.

If your baby is found to have hearing loss, it doesn’t mean that he won’t be able to go to “hearing” schools or function normally with peers his age. It just means that by taking the steps necessary as early as possible to help your baby, you can make his life a little bit easier as he transitions into the speaking world and make it a little bit easier for him to communicate with those around him.