Getting Pregnant – Four Questions You Might be Asking

If you’ve decided to start a family and you’re confused by all the conflicting information you read on the internet. Here are the answers to four of the most important questions you might be thinking about.

Pregnancy Positions

All sexual positions can result in pregnancy, and there hasn’t been enough research to say whether or not one position is better than another. However, the closer the sperm is to the cervix the better, and it would appear that the ‘missionary’ and ‘doggy’ style are the best positions to achieve this.

Weight

Being overweight or underweight should not reduce your chances of getting pregnant, as long as you have regular periods, then you are ovulating. However, weight can affect how your pregnancy progresses and in order to avoid problems it is better to be a healthy weight before you become pregnant.

Underweight

If you are underweight because you are not eating properly, or you have an eating disorder, then your baby may not get the nourishment it needs to develop properly and will be born underweight itself, which could lead to problems such as low blood sugar and feeding difficulties.

Overweight

Many overweight women get pregnant and have trouble-free pregnancies. However if you are clinically obese, which means you have a BMI of 30 or over, there is a greater risk of miscarriage, or that you will develop gestational diabetes and high blood pressure. Your baby might weigh more than normal which could mean that your baby will need to be delivered by caesarean section.

How much you Have Sex

You can only become pregnant when you ovulate and once the egg is released it only lives for 24 hours. However, sperm survives in the fallopian tubes for a few days, which means that an egg can be fertilised if you have had sex just before or just after ovulation.

If you have regular periods, you can roughly work out when ovulation will take place. The first day of your period is the beginning of your cycle. Count the days between each period over 3 months. If your cycle is 28 days, you will ovulate on day 14 of your cycle, which means that by having sex on days 12 to 16 gives you a better chance of falling pregnant. If your cycle is 32 days, then you will ovulate on day 16 and so having sex between day 14 and 18 might be beneficial.

If you are unable to work out your cycle because your periods are irregular, then having sex every couple of days should increase your chances of pregnancy.

Sperm Health

Smoking, drinking and drug taking all effect sperm health. It’s best only to drink in moderation and cut out drugs and smoking.

According to the National Health website, research has also found that saturated fat may lower sperm count. Good fats such as those in oily fish, nuts and avocados are fine, but if you do want your sperm to be really healthy, it might be best to cut down on the takeaways for a while.

The most important thing you can do is relax, enjoy trying to get pregnant and make the most of being able to spend plenty of time in bed!