Pregnancy due date

Finding your pregnancy due date is really simple. Gynecologist grab a calendar and count exactly 40 weeks from your last menstruation.
So, if your last period was for example the 1st of January 2004, the pregnancy due date will be the 7th of October, exactly 40 weeks after.

Are these child birth contractions?
Am I dilating?
Shall I go to the hospital?

These questions pop into your head about 15 days before your pregnancy due date.

The pregnancy lasts between 38 to 42 weeks. Some pregnancies end early (premature babies) and other ones come late.
About two weeks before the pregnancy due date, some signs appear that announce the end of the pregnancy. This pregnancy due date signs are different in each pregnancy, even in the same woman; so just see the most popular signs as a reference.

1.- The first pregnancy due date sign is that the baby goes down to the pelvis area (specially in first time mothers) about 10 to 14 days before giving birth. Then the pressure in the stomach is less and the digestion gets easier, but now the pressure goes into the bladder, needing to urinate more often. The increase of pressure in the pelvis area increases the cramps in the legs and back pains.
In women who already have kids this doesn't happen because the uterus muscles have stretch and the baby adopts the position usually moments before is born.

2.- The Contractions:
The Braxton Hicks contractions are usual in the last two weeks before the pregnancy due date comes. They get more frequent, stronger and painful with time. At night they appear as muscle contractions in the lower part of the abdomen. They are not rhythmic and disappear with rest and relaxation. These contractions help the uterus to mature and prepare it to dilate at the moment of giving birth.

3.- Changes in the uterus neck:
The uterus neck prepares itself for the pregnancy due date, changes its texture and gets softer and softer until it will dissapear at the moment of giving birth..

4.- Another sign of pregnancy due date is that just before going into labor the woman might have a pink color vaginal fluid. This could be the plug in the cervical channel acompanied by a bit of blood. The job of giving birth is about to start. This happens normally about 24-72 hours before labor starts.

5.- Expulsion of the mucous plug:
When the uterus neck gets soft, the mucous plus comes out. This is a sign that in the next 24-36 hours the baby will be born. But often it takes longer than that.

6.- Water breaks:
It is not very common that women experience water breaking spontaneously. But when it happens it's neccesary to go to the hospital inmediately. The baby shall be born in the following 24 hours naturally or will be forced to.

7.- Back pains:
When the baby goes down to the pelvis area, two weeks before it is born, the back pains get stronger. The balace of the woman's body changes, and she is forced to walk leaning to the front, "like a duck", suffering lumbago pains.

8.- Preparing the nest:
Even when women experience tiredness during the last stage of pregnancy, 24 to 48 hours before the pregnancy due date moment , they might get an unusual rise in energy, wanting to do many jobs around the house; preparing the nest for when the baby comes.

Before giving birth another symptom might appear like flatulence, hyperactivity, nervousness, headaches, vomit, diarrea....