Frequently Asked Questions

Help!  My baby was born before my due date.  How can I turn BirthWatch off?

Just go to the Upcoming Weeks page and cancel any remaining scheduled posts.

You can also remove any Facebook application from the standard Edit Applications page which will stop the app cold in its tracks from posting anything else.

What is a doula?

The term comes from a Greek word meaning “to serve”. Birth doulas serve and support expectant women and their partners and families with the emotional and physical aspects of childbirth. Postpartum doulas serve and support after childbirth. Both birth and postpartum doulas can assist women and their families in getting information to make the very best health care decisions for themselves and their families.  DONA International has much more information on the value of a Doula.  While most insurance does not (yet!) cover doula services, many doulas provide their services on a sliding fee scale, and many communities have options for free or low cost doula services through their local certifying organization or public health office.

How do you calculate the current week and day of my pregnancy?  The app is not showing the week I expect it to.

BirthWatch uses language referring to the week of pregnancy most recently completed. Think of this as being similar to referring to your age. After your first birthday, you would say you are one year old. You could say you are in your second year and that would be true, but that is not the commonly used expression. Similarly we refer to where you are in your pregnancy using the most recently completed week. For example, we would say you are 20 weeks along or 20 weeks pregnant when you have passed the completion of week 20 and are currently in week 21. It can help to review the custom Calendar page to see a detailed list of weeks for your pregnancy.

A typical pregnancy is generally accepted to be 280 days long.  There are a few different ways of calculating the current week/day of your pregnancy.  The BirthWatch app uses the "Last Menstrual Period" method, where the due date is 280 days from the first day of your last menstrual period.  So for example, if the first day of your last menstrual period was January 1, your due date would be calculated as October 8, which is 280 days after January 1.

I'm not seeing anything being shared on my Facebook profile, what's up with that?

In some cases we have experienced problems obtaining and saving the Facebook permissions required to post to your profile and wall. Also these permissions need to be renewed every 60 days or so, or after you change your Facebook account password.  If you go back to the Upcoming Weeks Page and disable and re-enable the schedule for any post, we will refresh the permissions and you and your friends will see the updates going forward.

Why does my health care provider give me different information about how my pregnancy is progressing as opposed to what BirthWatch says?

The information from BirthWatch is not specific to your individual pregnancy.  It is based on the typical events of a normal pregnancy, and we all know that nobody is "typical" or "average"!  Please make no health care decisions based on the information from the BirthWatch application, and always consult with your health care provider if you have questions about your pregnancy.