My health teacher lied!- July 14, 2010
You remember middle school health class right? All the weirdly religious kids went to the library to do alternative worksheets. We then learned about periods, testicles, and hair down-there. (We even learned about contraception my public school in the 1990’s. Gasp! It’s a shocker we’re not all sex-crazed heathens learning anything but abstinence.)
Remember the teacher? She was that woman with the short hair and the track suit a-la Sue Sylvester from Glee.
THIS WOMAN WAS A LIAR!? Why? I’ll tell you why. She said pregnancy was nine months. As a pregnant woman, I have learned this is not true. IT IS TEN MONTHS YA’LL! TEN!
I figured this out today. Tomorrow I’ll be 25 weeks. So I was thinking, “Oh, last week at 24 weeks, I was 6 months. 6×4=24.” I mean, I sucked at math, but apparently I suck at health too. Pregnancy is 40 weeks. 40 weeks/4 weeks in a month=10 months! WHAT?!
Why would they lie? Health teachers should have just laid it out there that this would continue for 10 months. Then, maybe that would’ve deterred the girls in high school from getting knocked up.
Spread it around:
In my middle school health class we didn't learn about any of that. We learned the bones in our bodies and all about illegal drugs + why we shouldn't use them. It was taught by our overweight male gym teacher. And we didn't have any weird religious kids in our school because they all went to the Christian academy or were homeschooled. Now that I think about it…we didn't learn about sex or reproduction at all in school…nor did I get "the talk" from my parents. Where did I learn it from? How do I have one and a half kids? I'm so confused!
The math is actually a bit more complicated. Here is how it actually works:
There are 365.25 days per year, the 0.25 is to account for a for a leap year. There are 12 months a year. 365.25 days year/12 months is 30.44 days per month.
40 weeks pregnant times 7 days a week is 280 days. 280 days divided by the average month of 30.44 days is…….9.20 months.
So, pregnant is 9 months and 6 days. Since babies rarely come on the due date and first babies tend to arrive late while subsequent babies tend to come early, and there is only one first but can be many "non-first," the average pregnancy is closer to the 9 months than 9.20.
Sorry Amy, your health teacher was right.
Alison
Your maths suck (52 weeks in a year! Not 48!) but I love your writing. I'll be back to reminisce… and to look forward! 😉
Mwah mwah, dahling.
I remember when I found that out. Also when Hubby and I didn't get pregnant right away I was pretty annoyed. I thought if you ever had unprotected sex, you would get pregnant immediately! Stupid, lying health teachers.