Do NHS due dates take long cycles into account?

[sheeplikessleep]

I'm normally around 36 days, last period 13th June, which makes me coming up to 8 weeks pregnant if you count from day of last period.

But when I look online and adjust it for the fact my cycle is long, it says I am coming up to 7 weeks (which is more realistic I know).

Not a biggie, but I've got first MW appointment in a couple of weeks and I just wondered whether they just work from date of last period or if they'll take into account my long cycle?

Thanks

in my experience, no they didn't. i was convinced their date was a week early. ds arrived 1hr 45 mins after their due date

thanks miamla - that's what i remember from last time (mw had a circular disc with dates, so i think was quite a standard 'rule').

ds1 was 3 weeks early on their due date, which would have meant he was actually 4 weeks early on my timelines.

suddenly i'm now a week ahead of myself!

IME they don't. I knew when I ovulated and conceived, so DS was 18 days over by their dates they refused to listen to me. Same again this time around.

Fingers crossed it's an early arrival ! So you avoid the induction pressure and hassle

SOme MW do some don't I was never asked with dd and in all honesty for various reasons I wasn't in a position to argue as I had no idea myself for various reasons.
Wilth ds a difrent mw and when she asked the date of my LMP and how long my (short) cycle usually was and she worked it out the due date from that which was only a day different from what the dating scan ended up shopwin. Not that it mattered ds was 3 weeks early anyway.

BTW rules have changed here in staffs and they insist on using scan date regardless - which puts my due date at least 5 days early by my calculation

you may find they've changed guidelines in your area too

No they don't.

With DS1 they gave me a date based on a standard 28-day cycle based on my LMP - but my cycles had been a bit erratic and when we went for the 12-week scan, he was only just over 10 weeks.

With DS2, I was a bit more aware of when I was ovulating and knew I conceived him on what would have been another 35-day cycle - so I admit I lied to the MW about the date of my LMP and gave her a date a week after it actually was so all the dates would pan out - which it did, as when we went for the 12-week scan, they agreed the date was correct

thanks for posting. i will mention it to the mw when i see her in a couple of weeks and see what she says.
being a week 'on' feels nicer anyway, given the morning sickness at the moment

I'm pretty long cycled as well, but they adjusted my due date at my first scan. according to the date of my last period I should be 17 weeks or so but according to the size of the baby at the scan they put me back by 10 days. so they do take it into account in the end, but maybe not at your booking appt?

HTH and congratulations

really ceebee - that's tempting to do. i know when i ovulated, as we were using opks and was checking cm etc.

Not yet, the mw will use the little wheel

but they will adjust the dates at yr 12wk scan, and they are usu much closer to what you thought.

ime they start with a 28 day cycle date, but then they go with the dating scan date. my dating scan date put me in line with my 35 day cycle.

No they don't. Those wheel thingys they all seem to use are for a standard 28 day cycle with ov on the 14th day...no good for someone like me who has average cycle of 38 days with with ov sometime after day 22.

I don't do scans so they will just have put up with the date I give them if/when I get pg again...any attempt to change it on my notes without me agreeing will be very firmly crossed out

IME experience, no.

I have a short cycle. My LMP date estimate was about 3 days earlier than my own estimate. My baby was big so my scan date was then about 4 days earlier than that.

I was keen to avoid sweeps being done 'too early' so I kept mentioning this throughout my pregnancy and they did make a note of it. In the end I went 10 days over the scan date, so 3 days over my own estimate.

I lied about the date of my LMP to make my due date tally with my conception date. I knew when I conceived and wanted my care to fall in line with that. Sure enough, scan agreed with me to the day. LMP would have put me over a week out. It's not such a problem at first I suppose but didn't want to go overdue and have induction threatened at an arbitrary time.

thanks so much for posting.
i'm going to think about this and whether to say my period was 7 days later than it actually was.

No they don't, and I have this problem, but the other way round. I have a short cycle, and their due date is putting me 3 days later than mine. For various reasons this is making things quite complicated.

Grrr. I intend to lobby the sonographer at my 20 week scan in a couple of weeks.

I hadn't a clue when I conceived and my cycle was all over the shop - then my scan put the due date three weeks later than the LMP calculation . Fortunately they use the date derived from the scan (which turned out to be bang on). So unnecessary induction shouldn't be a problem (assuming you trust the scan information that is).

My midwife stuck with the LMP date as the starting point, despite my 40 odd day cycles. This was revised by one week at my 12 week scan (so it was really a 13 week scan), which gave me a date suggesting I conceived before DH and I stopped using contraception . Not sure what to make of that...

My MW initially used the LMP date assuming a 28 day cycle, ignoring the fact that my cycles are usually 34 days long. After my dating scan nobody in the NHS would acknowledge anything BUT the scan due date, which was two weeks past the LMP date and one week past "my" estimated due date. (I got turned away from my triple-blood test appt, because the nurse refused to take my blood before 14w by the scan date.)

I continue to measure spot on for the scan date so I suppose it's more accurate... although as FlyingDuck mentioned, it can be frustrating when the implied conception date is biologically highly unlikely and nobody seems to care.

flying duck... my DP was in a different country when we conceived our DS (according to their dates)

my date wasn't adjusted at dating scan but whole time i was told i was measuring bigger than they'd expect!

They will only take it into account, ime, if you tell them about it (quite forcefully!). It needs to be adjusted for. A week is a big difference when it comes to inductions etc.

hmmmm, i think i might say how i know when i ovulated and that it is a week out and how i've been tracking ovulation day for a few months reliably.

thanks for posting. this has made me think about it. ds1 was 3 weeks early, so less important, but even now i think he was actually 4 weeks early.

I think I must be the only one whose scan dates have been inaccurate, but there again I think I tend to birth big babies with big heads !

I also lied about my LMP btw, having gone through the whole pressure to induce last time

I'd been temping and knew exactly when I ovulated, so worked out what my LMP would have been on a 28 day cycle (with O on day 14) and lied. I was dead on dates for both scans, so knew I was right and no adjustments needed!

YankNCock - yes I lied too for the same reasons. Or at least I was honest with my lovely cmw who I love to bits, but told her I was going to lie to everyone else & we agreed to lie together! My scan confirmed it so I was glad I had done so.