We Are Planning To Try For A Baby Are There Any Dietary Supplements Apart From Folic Acid That Can Help Me
Monica Moore, founder of Fertile Health, LLC
Eating a balanced diet and maintaining a healthy weight are incredibly important prior to conception. Any additional nutritional needs can be met by taking a daily prenatal vitamin that contains the necessary vitamins and minerals. In addition, it’s important to make sure that the prenatal vitamin contains DHA, which is an essential fatty acid that is critical for brain and neurological development. Babies depend on a maternal supply of DHA . If the prenatal vitamin doesn’t contain DHA, this should be added as a separate supplement to assure proper neurological health for the baby.
What Positions Are Best
With hundreds of millions of sperm released in each male orgasm, any unprotected sex around the time of ovulation could result in a pregnancy. As long as sperm enter the vagina, you have a chance to conceive.
No certain positions during sex have been proven to increase likelihood of conception. Yet certain positions may be better than others for ensuring those little swimmers find their way up to the egg. The missionary and doggie-style positions allow for deeper penetration bringing sperm in closer proximity to the cervix.
In the standing and woman-on-top positions, gravity works against you. Yet standing up right after sex shouldnt reduce your odds of a pregnancy. Sperm are pretty good swimmers. Once deposited in the vagina, they can reach the cervix within 15 minutes.
Though you dont need to raise your legs in the air after sex, or even lie flat on your back to help them get there, it cant hurt. Placing a pillow under your lower back will also keep the sperm swimming in the right direction.
Pregnant Individuals No Longer Need Vaccination Appointments At Regional Clinics
Pregnant individuals no longer need an appointment to get a first, second, or third dose of COVID-19 vaccine at regional clinics.
Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, announced the details during Friday’s virtual community update.
“If you are pregnant, it is especially important that you get vaccinated for the protection of your baby as well as yourself,” said Dr. Wang.
She added hospitals in Ontario are starting to see admissions of infants with COVID-19, and they’re at a greater risk due to their immature immune systems.
Dr. Wang said maternal antibodies can provide protection for the first six months of a child’s life, and urged pregnant individuals to get vaccinated to protect themselves and their babies.
“Both Ontario and Waterloo Region are on the ascending curve of the Omicron wave. We can expect the highest levels of spread of COVID-19 that we’ve ever seen in the month of January.”
Dr. Wang said Omicron is the most contagious variant yet.
“Even if only one per cent of those infected require hospital care, the sheer number of those requiring hospitalization can overwhelm the health care system.”
Dr. Wang says people hunker down in the middle of a major storm, “Now is the time for each of us to hunker down to blunt the impact of the wave that is upon us.”
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Follow My Babys Growth
Fertility slowly starts to decline at around age 32, and this decline accelerates after age 35. Women are born with around one million eggs. Over time, the number of eggs drops. By about age 37, youll have around 25,000 eggs left. Chances of getting pregnant spontaneously for people aged 35-39 years are about half that of people aged 19-26 years. In addition, the risk for genetic abnormalities and miscarriage also begins to increase after age 35.
Once women reach their 40s, they experience a rapid decline in their ability to conceive naturally. Although most people who are in their 40s can have a healthy pregnancy, the risks tend to increase considerably during this time. Some of these risks include:
- Premature birth
- Birth defects
Can You Measure It
The idea of measuring your semen might seem unusual and we aren’t recommending that you ejaculate into a cup and measure it yourself at home. Your doctor can perform a comprehensive analysis of your semen and sperm counts to let you know if your fertility is normal.
Semen analysis is usually the first test doctors recommend for assessing male fertility. Your doctor will ask you to collect a sample of semen from masturbation or sexual intercourse .
A lab will analyze your sperm sample to learn more about your fertility and send the results back to your doctor. He or she will look at your semen volume, sperm count, sperm concentration, viability, and motility to determine if any factors could negatively impact your fertility.
At least 30%-50% of infertility cases are due to male-factor infertility. If you are having fertility problems and find that your semen analysis comes back normal, however, remember that a healthy pregnancy relies on both partners’ fertility.
Hormone levels are just one way in which women’s fertility can be measured. Your partner can use a digital fertility tracker like Mira or visit the doctor for a blood test to analyze their hormone concentrations and how they affect fertility.
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Avoid Toxic Substances And Environmental Contaminants
Avoid harmful chemicals, environmental contaminants, and other toxic substances such as synthetic chemicals, metals, fertilizer, bug spray, and cat or rodent feces around the home and in the workplace. These substances can hurt the reproductive systems of men and women. They can make it more difficult to get pregnant. Exposure to even small amounts during pregnancy, infancy, childhood, or puberty can lead to diseases. Learn how to protect yourself and your loved ones from toxic substances at work and at home.
Jumping Up And Down After Sex
This may sound silly but I have heard people say that this is what they do to avoid getting pregnant. Sperm can swim against the force of gravity pretty easily, so jumping up and down is not going to make the slightest bit of difference. Once those sperm are inside your uterus , they will be hunting out your egg like little undercover agents, and a bit of jumping up and down is not going to stop them.
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How To Get Pregnant
Breadcrumb
For the best chance of getting pregnant, you need to get your eggs and your partner’s sperm together as often as possible.
More than 8 out of 10 couples where the woman is aged under 40 will get pregnant within one year if they have regular unprotected sex. More than 9 out of 10 couples will get pregnant within two years.
Regular, unprotected sex means having sex every 2 to 3 days without using contraception.
You don’t need to time having sex only around ovulation, though it is helpful to know when you are ovulating. Having vaginal sex every 2 to 3 days will give you the best chance of getting pregnant. Sperm can live for 2 to 3 days and this means there will always be fresh sperm in your system when you ovulate .
Remember its important for you and your partner to try and keep sex enjoyable by concentrating on each other and your relationship, rather than worrying about conceiving. This will help you limit stress.
When Is The Best Time Of The Day To Have Sex To Get Pregnant
No specific time of the day is associated with a greater chance of pregnancy. Nevertheless, some people wonder if having sex in the early morning will help them conceive faster. The idea that morning sex may facilitate conception is often based on the belief that sperm conditions change throughout the day. Does this match the research? Lets take a look.
Several groups of scientists have investigated how different sperm parameters may change depending on the time of day. Some of them suggest that sperm count might rise in the morning, which means there might be more sperm to fertilize the egg. However, the reported difference is only slight.
Another study found that sperm count and motility may increase in the afternoon. In other words, sperm may be more abundant and mobile, increasing their likelihood of reaching the egg in the evening.
These findings look pretty contradictory, and there is no consensus among doctors. Instead, more important factors may help improve sperm quality rather than the time of day. While the time of the day makes almost no difference in sperm activity, a persons lifestyle, long-term health, medications, and even ejaculation frequency can influence sperm quality.
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Swap Out Your Partners Tight Underwear
Time to make the switch to boxers and trade your partners favorite skinny jeans for a less restrictive pair. Tight underwear and pants can have a negative effect on a mans sperm count and quality a study found that men who wear more forgiving options have higher sperm concentration and count than those who prefer bottoms that leave little to the imagination.
You Use The Pull Out Method
This old-school method of preventing pregnancy is a far cry from a myth. It’s not foolproof and it can certainly result in pregnancy, but it does significantly decrease your chances of getting pregnant. In case you need a refresher course on the pull-out method, also known as withdrawal, it involves the male partner pulling out of the vagina before he ejaculates. The problem, however, is that pre-ejaculate or precum, the bodily fluid that’s released from the penis before an actual ejaculation, very well may contain active and viable sperm.
Additionally, Mark Trolice, M.D., reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialist at My Fertility CARE: The IVF Center in Winter Park, Florida, explains that most men aren’t aware of when they release this precum. “Because it’s hard to predict when pre-ejaculation occurs, the withdrawal method is often fraught with peril and certainly not the most reliable method out there,” he says.
How hard is it to get pregnant while using withdrawal? Withdrawal is about 96 percent effective with perfect use and 82 percent effective with typical use. If you really want to avoid pregnancy, choose a different contraceptive method
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What Is Folic Acid
Folic acid is a B vitamin that every cell in your body needs for healthy growth and development. Taking it before and during early pregnancy can help prevent birth defects of the brain and spine . Birth defects are health conditions that are present at birth. Birth defects change the shape or function of one or more parts of the body. They can cause problems in overall health, in how the body develops or in how the body works.
To help prevent NTDs in your baby, start taking a vitamin supplement with 400 mcg of folic acid every day before you get pregnant. A supplement is a product you take to make up for certain nutrients that you dont get enough of in the foods you eat. Start taking 400 mcg of folic acid each day at least 1 month before pregnancy and through the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Your folic acid supplement can be:
- A multivitamin. This is a pill that contains many vitamins and other nutrients that help your body stay healthy.
- A prenatal vitamin. This is a multivitamin that has nutrients you need during pregnancy. Your health care provider may give you a prescription for prenatal vitamins, or you can get them over the counter without a prescription.
- A supplement that contains just folic acid.
Because nearly half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned, you should take a vitamin supplement with 400 mcg of folic acid each day even if youre not trying to get pregnant.
What Are Some Ways To Increase Your Sperm Volume
The good news is that unlike women, who are born with a fixed number of eggs, men are not born with a finite amount of sperm. Men are constantly producing new sperm.
Sometimes, low sperm count is due to genetic abnormalities, but many times it is correlated with controllable lifestyle factors. Men may be able to boost their sperm count by making small changes in their everyday lives.
Read on to discover some simple ways you might be able to boost your sperm quantity and quality at home.
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How Long Does It Take To Get Pregnant
The amount of time it takes to get pregnant is different for each person, and can depend on a lot of things .
If youre fertile and having unprotected vaginal sex, theres a very good chance youll get pregnant within 1 year. About 85 out of 100 people who try to get pregnant succeed within 1 year. But everyones different for some people its much faster, while it may take longer for others.
If youve been trying to get pregnant for 6 months to a year with no luck, talk with your doctor, or visit your local Planned Parenthood health center to see if they can help and make sure everythings okay.
Have Sex Every Other Day During The Fertile Window
The “fertile window” spans a six-day interval the five days prior to ovulation and the day of it, according to theAmerican Society for Reproductive Medicine. Every month, a woman is most fertile on these days.
Many women are turning to new technology tools, such as fertility-tracking apps and websites, to help them keep tabs on when they may be more likely to conceive, but a 2020 review in the journalBMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health suggests that there is limited independent research on their accuracy. In a study published in 2016 in the journalObstetrics & Gynecology, scientists analyzed 50 popular fertility-tracking websites and apps with a hypothetical woman, and found that the results varied wildly, with many mistakenly tagging days outside of the fertility window, Live Science reported.
When a woman has identified that fertility window, should they have sex every day? Research has shown that there hasn’t been a big difference in pregnancy rates between couples who had sex every day during the “fertile window” compared with couples who did it every other day , Pavone said. “And having sex every other day might be easier for a couple to pull off,” she added.
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- Glow Ovulation, Period Tracker
- Fertility Friend FF App
- Clue: Health & Period Tracker
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Stop Smoking Alcohol And Drugs Limit Caffeine
If you smoke, drink alcohol, or use drugs, you should stop before you get pregnant. They can:
- Make it harder for you to get pregnant
- Increase the chance of miscarriage
If you need help quitting smoking, alcohol, or drugs, talk to your doctor or midwife.
Alcohol can harm a growing fetus , even in small amounts. Drinking alcohol while you are pregnant can cause long-term problems for your baby, such as intellectual disability, behavioral issues, learning disabilities, and facial and heart defects.
Smoking is bad for unborn babies and puts your child at greater risk of health problems later in life.
- Women who smoke during pregnancy are more likely to have a baby with a lower birth weight.
- Smoking also makes it harder for you to recover from your pregnancy.
Drugs that are not prescribed by a doctor can be dangerous for you to take at any point in your life.
You should also cut down on caffeine when you are trying to get pregnant. Women who daily consume more than 2 cups of coffee or 5 cans of soda that contains caffeine may have a harder time getting pregnant and a greater chance of miscarriage.
Limit unnecessary medicines or supplements. Discuss with your provider about both prescribed and over-the-counter medicines and supplements you take before you try to conceive. Most medicines have some risks, but many have unknown risks and have not been thoroughly studied for safety. If medicines or supplements are not absolutely necessary, do not take them.
Age Is A Major Factor For Women
Youve probably heard the phrase your biological clock is ticking. This phrase refers to your fertile window. Women cant conceive after their menstrual cycles stop, usually sometime in your 40s or 50s. Men produce sperm throughout their lives, but women are born with a set number of eggs that decreases as you age.
At birth you have about two million eggs but naturally lose hundreds of thousands of them by the time you reach puberty, says Cross. Your body continues to lose eggs no matter what you do. And the rate at which women lose eggs accelerates around the age of 37.
The quality of eggs stored in the ovaries also declines over time. The eggs youre born with are naturally paused in the process of dividing their DNA, Cross explains. They complete that process, or ripen, when you ovulate them 20 to 40 years later. The longer eggs are stuck in the mid-division stage, the more likely that process will go wrong creating eggs with the wrong number of chromosomes. That results in not becoming pregnant, experiencing miscarriages or having babies with genetic syndromes due to chromosomal abnormalities.
The bottom line: The quality and number of eggs a woman has decreases throughout her lifetime and egg loss accelerates around the age of 37, which makes it more difficult to become pregnant.
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Getting Pregnant When Youre 35 And Up
Advantages
- When youre older, youre more likely to be financially secure.
- Older moms tend to be more established in their careers, so you may find it easier to return to work .
- Your relationship with your partner may be more stable, which benefits you and baby.
- Waiting gives you more time to travel and hit other goals on your to-do list, so theres no feeling of missing out.
Disadvantages
- It can be more difficult to get pregnant.
- If you have trouble conceiving, you may need in vitro fertilization or other fertility treatments, which can be expensive.
- Pregnancy at an older age increases the risk for ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage, preterm birth, stillbirth, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and birth defects.
- Older women are more likely to need a C-section.
- You might not have as much energy as younger parents, making keeping up with a baby or active child more challenging.
- Health issues like diabetes and hypertension are more likely as youre older. These can affect your chances of getting pregnant.
Women who are older than 35 and have been trying unsuccessfully to get pregnant for six months should see a specialist. Women who are over 40 and trying to conceive should see a specialist immediately.
