The critical question

The idea behind Pregspect came a few years ago when we realized that the estimated due date offered by maternity care is exclusively based on the baby’s size at the time of the ultrasound examination and a general assumption regarding the length of a normal pregnancy. We became curious and asked:

Shouldn’t it be possible to make better and more personalised birth date predictions?

 

Born out of curiosity

In 2020, two researchers at Uppsala University, Oscar Erixson and Mikael Elinder, gained access to the large amount of birth data needed to find out the answer to this question.

Thanks to their expertise in statistics and analysis of large amounts of data, they were able to find out if and how factors such as the mother’s age, whether it is the first pregnancy and whether it is a boy or a girl, affect the length of the pregnancy.

To our delight, it turned out that they were able to identify several factors that affect the length of the pregnancy. We realized that it would thereby be possible to offer personal birth date predictions.

Pregspect was born!

Read an article about the researchers and their work at Uppsala University.

Powered by data

Through an analysis of data from 1.7 million pregnancies, researchers at Uppsala University were able to identify a number of factors in mothers and children affecting the length of pregnancies.

The researchers developed two different forecast models where a selection of individual factors concerning the mother and child are combined with the date of birth as determined by ultrasound or, alternatively, with a date of birth based on information on the last menstrual period.

It turned out that for more than 9 out of 10 pregnant women, the date of birth calculated solely on the basis of the ultrasound examination is not the day when the baby is most likely to be born!