Our 9 Months

Conception usually occurs about 2 weeks before your next period would have been due (or about two weeks after the start of your last normal period). However, it takes about 6 days for your newly conceived baby to reach your uterus from your fallopian tube, and further 6 days for them to fully implant in the lining of your uterus, to start ‘interacting’ with your body. This ‘interaction’ involves your body providing your baby with nourishment through your blood stream, as well as your baby producing hormones that move into your body to support the pregnancy.

Once the baby fully implants, they start to release a hormone called human gonadotrophin hormone (or HCG) into your blood stream. The HCG level starts off very low, but the concentration rapidly increases on the following days to produce physical pregnancy signs in the woman. (HCG levels also provide the basis for detecting a pregnancy with a pregnancy test.) This is the reason why early pregnancy signs do not start to become noticeable until around the time the woman’s next period would have been due (or 12 to 14 days after conception). In many cases, a woman will not notice any signs until 1 to 2 weeks after her period was due (or 5 to 6 weeks of the pregnancy), when the HCG level is sufficicently high enough to affect her body.

Positions during intercourse should not adversely affect fertility and subsequent pregnancy.

However,there area a number of positions to increase cances of conception/pregnancy.

Best Positions
1. The man-on-top position works well when trying to conceive. Place a small pillow under your hips following intercourse so that your cervix basically rests in the pool of semen for a short time (perhaps 20 minutes or so). This will allow the sperm time to easily swim up through the cervix. (Important Note: Do not use a large pillow, or you may sabotage your efforts, since the sperm may then puddle behind your cervix. Not a good place to be when trying to reach that egg.)

2.If you have a tipped uterus, you may have better luck having intercourse from behind (hands and knees position). By having intercourse in this position it allows the sperm better access to the cervix.

3.For the woman to lie on her side with her knees brought up towards her chest following sexual relations.This forces the cervix down into the vaginal pool of semen created.This action also helps to minimize semen loss and maximize contact of the cervix with the seminal pool within the vagina.

Positons to Avoid
1) For most women it makes sense to avoid straddling their partner while making love – woman-on-top, sitting or standing – since this can cause the semen to leak and may result in fewer sperm making their way to the egg.

2)The sensation of having to void following intercourse usually is caused by irritation of the urethra, is normal in nature, and should pass if the female merely waits.

The best time to have sex is on the day of ovulation and 24 hours afterwards. Healthy sperm can survive around 48 hours in the female reproductive tract. By having sexual intercourse back to back you increase your chances of having higher sperm counts at the fertilization site.

For dietary,mainatining healthy sperms are influenced by your nutrition intake.Vitamins C, E, Zinc, and Selenium improve the quality of the seminal fluid which bathes the sperm. Drinks or activities to be avoided include excessive alcohol intake, large amounts of coffee or any recreational drugs. DHEA pills and anabolic powder supplements can also decrease sperm quality.

Heat also does reduce sperm production. Some people’s sperm production is more susceptible to heat than others. In general, the increase heat associated with tight underwear is less than the heat seen with varicoceles, hot baths, febrile episodes, or high scrotal testes. Try wearing  boxers because every little bit ‘aeration’ helps to improve sperm count .

As on masturbation; masturbation is not different from normal intercourse in that an orgasm causes ejaculation whether it is the result of masturbation or sexual relations. When fertility is a concern, masturbation should not be practiced around the time of the wife’s fertile period. Theoretically, this can decrease the sperm reserve in an individual with a low or low-normal count and thus reduce semen quality at the time that the highest quality is needed – when the wife is ovulating.

Couples should plan intercourse around day 11 to 14 of the woman’s 28-day cycle.

However, it is often difficult to know exactly when ovulation is going to occur.

Doctors recommend that couples who are trying to have a baby have intercourse between day 10 and day 20 of a woman’s menstrual cycle. Studies have shown that having intercourse every other day works just as well as having intercourse every day in order to become pregnant.

If you have an irregular menstrual cycle and are no sure when or if you are ovulating, ovulation predictor kit can help. These kits, which can be bought at most drug stores, check for LH (luteinizing hormone) in the urine.

Other various methods to help detect your fertile period:

1)Evaluating Your Cervical Fluid

Cervical fluid  protects the sperm and helps it move through the cervix toward the uterus and fallopian tubes. Cervical fluid changes in preparation for ovulation. You will notice clear differences in how it looks and feels over the course of the cycle.

• Menstrual period occurring (no cervical fluid is present)
• Vagina is dry (no cervical fluid is present)
• Sticky/rubbery fluid
• Wet/creamy/white fluid — FERTILE
• Slippery/stretchy/clear “egg white” fluid — VERY FERTILE
• Dry (no cervical fluid)

The cervical fluid will be slippery and stretchy on your most fertile days. You can use your fingers to check the consistency of your cervical fluid. Find the fluid inside the lower end of the vagina. Tap your thumb and first finger together — if the material stretches while you spread your thumb and finger apart, this could mean ovulation is near.

2)Taking Your Basal Temperature

After you ovulate, your body temperature will rise and stay at an elevated level for the rest of your ovulation cycle. At the end of your cycle, it falls again.

You can use a special thermometer to take your temperature in the morning before you get out of bed. Use a glass basal thermometer or a digital thermometer so that you can get accuracy to the tenth of a degree. Keep the thermometer in your mouth for 5 minutes. Try not to move too much, as activity can raise your body temperature slightly. If your temperature is between two marks, record the lower number. Try to take your temperature at the same time every day, if possible.

Create a chart and write down your temperature everyday. If you look at a complete cycle, you will probably notice a point at which the temperatures become higher than they were in the first part of your cycle. More specifically, the rise is when your temperature increases 0.2 degrees above the previous 6 days.

Temperature is a useful indicator of fertility. After monitoring several cycles, you may be able to see a predictable pattern and get a sense for your most fertile days.