Planning to get pregnant, but confused and a wee bit worried too about how to handle the whole process and who to turn to for that trusted piece of advice? Well! The most basic thing for you to know and understand is when are you going to be most fertile, which, for most women, is approximately in the middle of the cycle, or just about 14 days before you expect your next period.
When planning to conceive, the first thing to do is stop using birth control pills. If you were using them, it would take some time for you to get back to normalcy. Most appropriate thing would be to wait for your first period after stopping the pills and aim to conceive. Your body weight plays a vital role in getting pregnant too. If you weigh just right for your height and body, it is easier conceiving, being over or underweight can cause a delay.
Keep a track of the day your fertility period begins each month. Also make a note on the number of days each period lasts.
If you have a steady 28-day cycle, ovulation is most likely to begin roughly 14 days after the day your last period began.
If your fertility cycles are to some extent irregular, deduct 18 from the number of days in your shortest cycle. When your subsequent period begins, count ahead this many days. This is a sensible guess for majority of your fertile days.
Just prior to ovulation, you'll observe an increase in clear, slippery vaginal secretions, if you test for it. These secretions in general bear a resemblance to raw egg whites. After ovulation, when the likelihood of conceiving is slim, the discharge gets thinner and sticky or disappears totally.
Ovulation kits are easily available in the market; they test your urine for the rush in hormones that take place before ovulation and identify the most likely time to ovulate.
Healthy lifestyle: Maintain a healthy weight, work out regularly, and eat nutritious food keeping stress under check. Follow the same healthy habits during pregnancy too, for a healthier child.
Intercourse once a day during ovulation: every day intercourse during the days foremost to ovulation possibly will increase the chances of conception. Although your partner's sperm count will go down slightly each time you have sex, the decrease isn't a matter of concern for healthy men.
Get your vitamins. Folic acid (vitamin B-9) plays a vital role in a baby's development. Taking a prenatal vitamin or folic acid supplement starting at least one month ahead of the conception during the first trimester of pregnancy can trim down the risk of spina bifida and other neural tube defects by up to 70 percent.
Regular sex: Consistent sex two or three times a week is most certain for you to strike a fertile period at some point.
Smoke: Tobacco has an effect on the cervical mucus, which might keep sperm from reaching the egg. Smoking can also increase the possibility of a miscarriage and deny your developing baby of oxygen and other essential nutrients.
Drink alcohol. Alcohol is a strict no no if you plan to conceive.