When you have decided your ready for a baby, get your body ready:
Take folic acid in supplement form, 400mcg a day, your doctor can prescribe or it can be found in some foods like cornflakes.
Cut back on your caffeine consumption.
If you have come off a birth control pill, there’s some dispute about how long you must wait before trying to conceive, but it is likely best to wait 2-3 months.
The male should take zinc supplements to improve the strength and numbers of his sperm
He should also increase his vitamin D consumption – drink milk.
Eliminate alcohol.
Stop smoking.
Have sex at the right time…. And frequently. To have a chance of conceiving, live sperm has to fertilise an egg at the time of ovulation – customarily around day 14 of your period. Sperm will generally live for three days so will hang around waiting and your timing doesn’t need to be specific. It’s easy to get ovulation predictor kits from the drugstore.
Be Patient – You may be doing everything right but you won’t necessarily conceive in the 1st month. In fact you almost certainly won’t!. Success is strongly related to age:
Women aged 20-25 have a 1 in 4 prospect of conceiving,
Ladies aged 30-35 the possibility drops to one in seven, and the success rate falls as they get older.
It will take a couple in their early to mid-twenties 5 cycles to conceive, and a couple in their early thirties 10 cycles. 1 out of 10 couples wait over a year before they succeed.
What If It’s Not Working? If you have been trying for a baby without success:
Make a temperature chart. After ovulation the woman’s body temperature rises by about .5 to 1.6 degrees and maintains this elavated temperature till her next period. By measuring your temperature upon waking and recording your temps on a chart, you can see when you ovulate. Ideally you should try to have sex just before then. You can’t turn the clock back of course, but the chart will tell you whether you ovulate at the same time every month and, if so , you can plan for the month after. The temperature rise is small and you may feel more assured with an ovulation kit.
Try and lower your stress levels. Stress can affect either partner and may reduce your odds of conceiving. Try to have a couple of days away from work just before ovulation is due.
If you have been unsuccessful for a year or more it is worth speaking to your physician.
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Tags: Conception, Health, increasing the chances of pregnancy, Ovulation, pregnancy, preparing your body for pregnancy, tips to conceiving
