If you are wanting to conceive a baby, you will no doubt hope to become pregnant as soon as possible. Many couples wishing for a new family member find it disappointing and stressful when, month after month, they find out that pregnancy has eluded them.
It is a myth that becoming pregnant is more likely than not likely, once you have stopped using birth control. In a healthy couple of reproductive age, the likelihood of conceiving a baby is 25 per cent per menstrual cycle. This means the average couple trying to conceive will do so within one to four months. Put another way, as many as one in ten healthy couples will take at least a year to become pregnant, if trying to do so.
Helping Nature Along
Knowing when you are most likely to conceive will increase your chances of becoming pregnant. A woman becomes most fertile around ovulation, which occurs approximately two weeks after the first day of her monthly period. Pinpointing the precise time that you personally ovulate will help you identify your most fertile time.
Identifying the "Right" Time
Although most women experience ovulation fourteen days into their cycle, many ovulate closer to the beginning of their cycle, for example, on the twelfth day. Others will ovulate closer towards the end of their cycle. Ovulation normally takes between six to eight days, culminating with the release of an egg from one of the two ovaries. During this process, the body undergoes a number of changes indicating that ovulation is taking place. These include the following:
- a feeling of fullness or bloating, sometimes accompanied by brownish red spotting and an ache or sharp pain in the pelvic region. (This is known by its German name, mittelschmerz.)
- increased body temperature, coinciding with the release of the egg.
- increased libido (sexual desire).
- a change in consistency of the mucus that surrounds the cervix. At the beginning of a woman’s cycle, the mucus is scant and usually opaque. When ovulation approaches, it becomes thinner and stretchy. (Some women liken it to the white of an egg.) The thin mucus provides the perfect environment to facilitate the passage of sperm into the uterus.
- An increase in the amount of estrogen in the saliva, beginning two or three days before the release of an egg. Although this increase cannot be felt or seen, it can be measured by placing saliva on a slide and examining it under a microscope.
Once you have determined that ovulation is about to take place, you will be able to act upon it. After sperm has entered a woman’s body, it can remain alive for up to three days. This means that having intercourse in the three days before release of an egg, or in the three days following the release of an egg, can result in pregnancy.