When to start a family
Having thought about it for a while you are now ready to start a family. How do you go about this and how to get pregnant are the first questions which will arise. We all know that sex is the key to getting pregnant but when actually trying to conceive many couples will overlook the idea of staying calm, relaxed and having plenty of sex and begin to focus on the exact point at which sex should happen to ensure that they become pregnant. With this in mind they become stressed and sometimes feel like they are making babies rather than making love and this can lead to the process taking longer.
An important thing to remember when trying to conceive is to take your folic acid supplements. Folic acid is extremely important to a developing baby as it can help reduce the chances of defects of the spinal cord (spina bifida). Folic acid is the vitamin required to produce new cells in the body and as the spinal cord is one of the earliest developmental stages it requires a regular continued supply of folic acid to develop safely. Evidence also suggests that a regular intake of folic acid helps to reduce cleft palate and lip. Folic acid supplements should be taken from the time you start trying to conceive up to the twelfth week of pregnancy.
In order to know how to get pregnant we must first understand the workings of the monthly female fertility cycle. When a female releases an egg from the ovaries into the fallopian tubes this is known as ovulation. Knowing when you ovulate is a good idea when trying to conceive. An ovulation calendar can help with this. If you have a regular cycle then day one of your cycle is the first day of your period. Women with regular cycles generally tend to ovulate at around day 10. The luteal stage of the cycle is when you are most likely to conceive and this is the stage between ovulation and the day before the start of your period, normally this phase will last around 14 days.
An ovulation calendar will help you effectively predict when you are ovulating. The normal ovulation calendar is based on a regular 28 day menstrual cycle with a 14 day luteal phase. Once you have used your ovulation calendar you will know the perfect time to get pregnant. Advice from leading experts recommends that you should have sex every other day starting at day 10 of your cycle to maximise your chances of getting pregnant.
Basal body temperature is also an extremely useful tool in predicting when you will be most fertile. Basal body temperature is the temperature of your body when you are resting. Effective monitoring of your basal body temperature will involve taking your temperature when you wake in the morning before you do anything, even speak. If you record this temperature every day for a period over a couple of months you will notice that just after you have ovulated your body temperature is slightly raised for a period of 3 to 4 days, this can then be used as a tool to predict when you are ovulating and the perfect conception time.
Early signs of pregnancy can occur before you have missed a period. These early signs of pregnancy are small indications that you may be pregnant and are symptoms such as the need to wee frequently, tenderness of the breast tissue, as the embryo implants itself some women experience slight cramps and bleeding. If you have been recording your basal body temperature, on your ovulation calendar, you may notice that it stays raised for a longer period, lasting for 2 weeks past ovulation. Other early signs of pregnancy can include an increase in the amount of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) in your body which can be detected with an early pregnancy or blood test.
Given that your baby will obtain all the vitamins, minerals and nutrients essential for healthy growth from you then it goes without saying that you should be eating a healthy well balanced diet throughout your pregnancy. A healthy diet during pregnancy should contain 2 portions of protein, 3 to 4 portions of grains, a pint of dairy, 5 portions of fruit or vegetables and 6 to 8 glasses of water every day. This may feel like a lot to eat, especially when suffering from morning sickness, so it is advisable when pregnant to eat little and often to avoid feeling to full.
The final point to remember when you are trying to conceive is that although you now know how to get pregnant sometimes it can take time, up to 2 years for a perfectly healthy couple. A couple who are aged 20-25 may take up to 5 months before conceiving whereas a couple who are aged between 30 and 35 could take even longer at around 9 months being the average. This is because every time you ovulate and hence every month you only have around a 1 in 4 or 5 chance of actually conceiving.
Learn more about using a pregnancy calculator with bounty.
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