So You Want To Conceive a Baby?!
Apr 07 '00
Finally, it is the grand day you have been waiting and planning for, you throw all your birth control out of the window and get ready to become parents! What are some good ways to increase your chances of conceiving that very much wanted baby?
Take your folic acid
This will not increase your conception chances, but will dramatically decrease your chances of a baby with a neural tube defect like Spina bifida, or anencephaly. These are serious birth defects. 0.4 mg of folic acid (one of the B vitamins) per day is recommended for decreasing your risk. The timing of this is very important. You need to take it before you even know you are pregnant to make it count most, so just take them every day when you are trying to conceive.
Get to know your cycle
Cycle lengths can very much vary in different women and even for the same person they won't always be the same. But, if you want to conceive, it is important to know what your 'normal' cycle is, and when you usually ovulate in that cycle, so that you have an idea when to best time intercourse. Research has shown that your best chances for a pregnancy happen from five days before ovulation up to the day of ovulation.
A rule of thumb to have a good idea about the timing of your ovulation is to monitor how many days your cycles normally are. Then subtract 14 days of that length, that is the day you most likely will be ovulating. It is not totally fool proof, but it will give you a landmark figure. So for example if your cycle is always 27 days, assume that ovulation is on day 13. If your cycle ranges from 30 to 35 days, the expected day of your ovulation is somewhere from day 16 to 21. These day numbers are always counted from the first day of your period, the first day you are bleeding. So that day is considered day 1, count from there to find your possible ovulation days.
If you want to have a better idea of when ovulation occurs, either because you have been trying for a while, or because it just interests you to figure out how your body works, try taking your Basal Body Temperature (BBT) and observing your cervical mucus (cm). These are 2 low tech ways, to get more intimately acquainted with your cycle. The BBT needs to be taken every morning, when you are still in bed, before you do anything, don't even get up to pee! It is best to do it at the same time every morning. I just have a thermometer underneath my pillow, which I use as soon as I wake up. The first part of your cycle, your temp will be 'low', then after ovulation it will go higher to your 'high'. This temp rise tells you that ovulation has occurred and it usually stays high for 13 days, crashing downwards again on day 14 after ovulation, the day of your period. If it stays high for 18 days, you are most likely pregnant.
The BBT will tell you afterwards that you ovulated, the cervical mucus will tell you beforehand, so is more helpful if you want to achieve pregnancy. When you are fertile, your cervical mucus will resemble egg white and it will be very stretchy.
The best book to help you get to know your cycle is 'Taking Charge of Your Fertility' by Toni Wechsler. This has very extensive directions and examples and will be a great help if you need more in depth knowledge of the whole female fertility issue.
Go for it!
When is the best time to have intercourse to increase your chances? And how often? Like I said, 5 days before ovulation till the ovulation day are best. The old advice used to do it every other day, but new research has shown that every day is even better. If you can't make it quite that often, do it every other day anyway, it still gives you pretty good chances. The only time that every other day is best, is when you know the male has issues of low sperm count. In that case it is better to give him time to recover between intercourse, by skipping a day.
The position of intercourse can be important too, male on top is more likely to result in conception than female on top. Not only that, but even the timing of your orgasms might help, having her orgasm after his, will help to 'scoop up' the little swimmers.
Another simple way to increase your chances is to stay laying down after sex, for about 20 minutes, you could even elevate your hips on a pillow. That way the sperm doesn't have to fight gravity and will be more likely to reach the egg.
Life style changes
Your chances of conception will increase if you both strive to be in perfect health and condition. Caffeine for example is known to decrease fertility in both male and female, so you could consider cutting that out. Smoking is another fertility treat, and can be downright dangerous when you are pregnant, so strongly consider quitting it. Just trying to eat healthy and nutritious foods might help a lot already too.
A low tech way to enhance male fertility is to not wear briefs, but only boxers. This will lower the temperature of the testicles, resulting in a better sperm count and thus a higher chance of conceiving.
There are some vitamins and herbal supplements which might increase your chances of conceiving. The ONNA website at http://www.onna.org has a good overview of those.
How long should it take?
You can be lucky and get pregnant the first time you try, but usually it does take longer. Six months is not unusual and the official advice is to try for a year before getting medical help. But if you have been trying for 9 months and have not been successful yet, start taking and charting your BBT, since that will most likely be the first time your doctor will ask you to do and then you have those results already and can get going to the next step.
If you are over 35 years old, the official advice is to get medical assistance after 6 months, since your biological clock is ticking faster and it is harder to conceive after that age anyway.
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