How to get pregnant ?

Want to know how to get pregnant, or just starting out? You might want to consider the following six tips; it could just fast track the much desired and sometimes evasive, conception.

A check-up before you start

First things first, you need to know if you and your partner’s bodies are in a healthy state. Eliminating all the possible health issues will help you and your partner manage your expectations when trying to conceive and will probably speed up the process of conception. Not to even mention the invaluable advice your doctor can give you. This brings us to the next point...

Start preparing your bodies

For her: The obvious first step is to stop using any form of contraception. Take care to follow tapering down instructions where necessary.

Now purify your body. Remember your body must be a safe haven for your partner's sperm and, when you conceive, it will be your foetus’s  ‘room’ for the best part of a year, so put in some effort. Cut out the alcohol, recreational drugs, and smoking, since these things interfere with fertility and are generally bad for you. Switch over to decaffeinated coffee, or replace it altogether with healthy, caffeine-free tea.  One or two cups of coffee have been linked to a lower chance of conceiving.

For him: your sperm needs to be in tip-top shape to fertilise that special egg. Getting your sperm fighting fit is pretty similar to your partner’s preparations.

According to studies daily drinking can reduce testosterone levels and sperm count and raise the number of abnormal sperm. Same goes for tobacco and recreational drugs.

Sperm is not heat-friendly and should be kept at a couple degrees below body temperature, so avoid the hot stuff like the sauna at the gym, hot tubs and so on.

There are not onlydon'ts, but alsodo's: fill up on lots of nutrients to feed your sperm, get enough rest, exercise, etc.

The sperm-cycle is quite slow, so making these changes now will only show a couple of months later, so get cracking ASAP.

For her: The obvious first step is to stop using any form of contraception. Take care to follow tapering down instructions where necessary. Now purify your body. Remember your body must be a safe haven for your partner's sperm and, when you conceive, it will be your foetus’s ‘room’ for the best part of a year, so put in some effort. Cut out the alcohol, recreational drugs, and smoking, since these interfere with fertility and are generally bad for you. Switch over to decaffeinated coffee, or replace it altogether with healthy, caffeine-free tea. One or two cups of coffee have been linked to a lower chance of conceiving.

For him: Your sperm needs to be in tip-top shape to fertilise that special egg. Getting your sperm fighting fit is pretty similar to your partner’s preparations. According to studies, daily drinking can reduce testosterone levels and sperm count and raise the number of abnormal sperm. Same goes for tobacco and recreational drugs. Sperm is not heat-friendly and should be kept at a couple degrees below body temperature, so avoid the hot stuff like the sauna at the gym, hot tubs and so on. There are not only don'ts, but also do's: fill up on lots of nutrients to feed your sperm, get enough rest, exercise, etc. The sperm-cycle is quite slow, so making these changes now will only show a couple of months later, so get cracking ASAP. 

Find out when you ovulate

The biggest secret in how to get pregnant is knowing when you release an egg from your ovary a.k.a ovulate. During each cycle you release one egg (this is true for most women) and timing sex during those days can be super effective. You can figure out when you ovulate using a few different methods, but one effective tool is our easy-to-use ovulation calendar www.calorababy.co.za/ovulation-predictor. 

When and how to make love

The objective is to have sex during the days before and after you release an egg. To be safe, start three days before ovulation and keep going for a few more days just for good measure. The thing is: sperm can survive for almost a week in your body, while an egg only lasts a day. So if you have sex early in the week, that sperm can last till the end of the week in your body, and fertilise the egg whenever it decides to make its entrance during that week.

Also: keep it fresh – not just the sex, but the sperm too. The best sperm are fresh in the week of ovulation, so ejaculation late in the previous week is advised. As external chemical resources like lubricants and so on could affect conception, keep it natural and organic. 

Stress is the enemy

The rule is simple: the more you stress, the less likely it is to conceive. See, stress messes around with your ovulation – your egg may decide to show up at a different time than usual, or not at all – wasting an entire cycle to get pregnant.  

Okay, now here’s a challenge – don’t stress?! In this day and age stress in unavoidable. However, how you handle it can make a considerable difference in the effect cortisol (the ‘stress hormone’) has on you and your partner’s bodies. Yes, don’t forget that underneath that hard exterior lies a man whose fears are very real too: why is it taking so long? What if I can’t get her pregnant? Will I be a good father? 

You and your partner should be proactive and engage in soothing exercise and simply do things you love. Practising yoga is a great way to bring down your cortisol levels and to increase both external and internal strength – not to mention that there are many classes specifically for pregnant women (or pre-pregnant women) that prepares the body for child birth and keeps mommies fit.  

Myth or not?

Remember the old wives’ tale that the missionary position is the best to conceive? Well, there seems to be some truth in it. Well, not necessarily the missionary position, but certainly lying down afterward, flat on your back. It has now been proven (through studies with artificial insemination) that enjoying that extra 15 minutes on your back could be how to get pregnant. When lying down, you give the sperm a chance to slide its way into the cervix and to your egg – so use gravity to your advantage, and increasing the possibility of conception by 50%. 

So, ladies and gents, enjoy this time of cleansing, bonding, exercising and making love!