Steps on falling pregnant

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:54:23 +0100

Is falling pregnant as easy as hopping into bed and getting sexy with your partner? Well, for many women it is that easy. Most often, women don't have to try that hard and whoops, they're pregnant.

But for some though, it's not that simple. They need a little bit of help, making love at just the right time, to aid conception. And the older you are, the more attention you'll probably have to pay to falling pregnant.

While phoning your partner and demanding that he rush home immediately from his incredibly important business meeting, because you're ovulating isn't entirely necessary, there are some steps that can be taken to make falling pregnant a little easier.

Relax

Firstly, don't stress! Your body needs to be in a healthy and happy condition to make falling pregnant optimal.

Visit your doctor

Make an appointment with your doctor. He'll make sure that you're healthy and there's nothing medically, that could make conception difficult. The doctor will also probably advise you to take folic acid; a vitamin that's very important for your baby's development.

Know when you ovulate

You'll also need to get to know your body and find out exactly when you ovulate. It's pretty simple, as long as you know how.

Experts say you only really have a week, in which to fall pregnant. Most women ovulate between the 11th and 14th day after their menstrual cycle has begun. Once you've established the exact day, the trick is to start making love at least two or three days before you ovulate and stop a day or two after you've ovulated.

The egg only survives for 12 to 24 hours after it has been released. If you've made love a few days before you've ovulated, there's a good chance you'll fall pregnant, as sperm can remain in your body for up to five days.

Home ovulation test kit

But what if you don't have a regular cycle? Well, that makes conceiving a little bit more challenging, but in no way impossible.

Go to your local pharmacy and buy yourself a home ovulation test kit. It's exactly the same as a home pregnancy test, and will give you a good idea of when you''re ovulating. Just urinate on the stick and if two lines appear, you're ovulating.

Take your temperature

You can also time your conception, by doing a basal body temperature (BBT) reading. Visit that pharmacy again, and buy yourself a BBT thermometer. Your vaginal reading should be done every morning, just after you've woken up and before you've moved around a lot, spoken or eaten.

Your temperature should normally be approximately 37 Degrees C. Just after the egg has been released, your BBT will increase by around 0,2?C. This isn't the best method, as you'll only notice the temperature increase once ovulation has begun and the optimal time for conceiving is the day before ovulation.

Cervical mucus

The third way of improving your chances of having a baby is to watch the changes in your cervical mucus. It's usually fairly thick but once ovulation has begun, the mucus becomes clearer.

Once you've done the deed, you'll no doubt be anxious about whether or not you've been successful. Remember though that you'll only be able to tell whether you're pregnant about two weeks after you've conceived. And if your monthly visitor appears, don't be too disappointed, the fun of falling pregnant, is in the trying, isn't it.

Planning a baby

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:45:19 +0100

When you are planning a pregnancy it is important that you are in optimum health, firstly to help your body to conceive, and secondly to maintain the pregnancy and grow a healthy baby. It is true that the baby will take what it needs from your body, but your body needs to be healthy and strong to nurture the growing baby, to give birth and to enable you to feed and care for the baby.

When planning a pregnancy it is advisable to first see your midwife or GP to discuss your plans, this would be particularly important if you have a pre-existing medical condition. It is worth having a rubella (German measles) blood test even if you have had German measles or had the immunisation in the past; for certain population groups further blood testing may also be suggested to exclude sickle cell, thalassaemia or Tay-Sachs disease. Your midwife or GP will check your physical wellbeing, perhaps offer you a cervical smear, check your blood pressure and ensure that there are no hazards to pregnancy in the workplace of both you and your partner.

The current Department of Health (DoH) recommendation is that it is advisable to take a folic acid supplement in the months prior to getting pregnant and for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy – if you don’t want to take a supplement it would be worth ensuring that you get additional folic acid in your diet from green vegetables, brown rice and walnuts. Folic acid supplementation has been shown to reduce the risk of neural tube defects (spina bifida).

A recent DoH recommendation is that pregnant women take Vitamin D supplements, this may be especially important if your religion requires you to cover a significant amount of your body (Vitamin D is absorbed into our skin by exposure to sunlight).

Be aware of toxoplasmosis - a bacterial infection that can be picked up in cat and dog faeces - not good news for a growing baby. Either get someone else to clear up after animals, or just be extra careful of hygiene - this also applies to gardening as the bacteria lives in soil. So if you garden, consider wearing gloves and again wash hands, nails very carefully.

Food advice in early pregnancy is to be extra careful with hygiene; food poisoning is bad news for your baby. Don't eat any unpasteurised foods - most food is pasteurised, but some speciality milks, cheeses/diary are not. Avoid moulded or veined cheeses and pate/salami. Eggs should be well cooked not runny. Fruit and vegetables should be washed prior to eating. It is suggested that you don't eat swordfish or marlin and limit the consumption of “oily” fish to twice weekly. Sea food should be cooked not raw. Liver is not recommended for pregnant women.

Whilst pregnant the current recommendation is not to drink alcohol at all, and it is better to limit the amount of caffeine you take (tea, coffee, cola and fizzy drinks), and obviously it would be wise to stop smoking and avoid any “recreational” drugs prior to getting pregnant.

We are still evaluating the evidence regarding eating peanuts in pregnancy – the best current advice is that if you have nut allergies in the family it may well be best to avoid eating nuts in pregnancy; it there are no nut allergies then use your own instinct and judgement as to whether you feel safe to eat nuts (bearing in mind they are a good source of protein, particularly if you are vegetarian or vegan).

Having made a huge list of foods to avoid, you are encouraged to eat plenty of fruit and vegetables (aim for at least five a day), plenty of protein (at every meal if you possibly can) and plenty of iron rich foods (red meat, pulses, green vegetables).

It can sometimes take many months to conceive and this can be a stressful time. I would encourage you to consider seeing complementary therapists as they may well be able to help you. It is worth considering acupuncturists, reflexologists, nutritionalists, homoeopaths or hypnotherapists – talk to different therapists and go to the one that you feel most comfortable with. The following websites also have lots of useful information:

www.haveababy.com
www.womantomother.co.uk
http://www.foresight-preconception.org.uk
http://www.marilynglenville.com
http://www.zitawest.com
http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/agesandstages/pregnancy/whenyrpregnant/

Written by Jayne Tingay

planning-a-baby

Steps on falling pregnant

Planning a baby