Trying to Conceive: Tips for Increasing Chances of Conception

Trying to conceive is surprisingly hard. It can be frustrating to hear stories left and right of people who have accidentally become pregnant, or people who are pregnant and angry at their current state. It's hard for someone who truly wants a child to hear these. There are many things that should be considered before and during the "trying to conceive" process. I'm going to discuss what should be known before trying to conceive.

It's harder for a female to get pregnant if the Body Mass Index isn't up to par. Being below 20 as far as BMI goes, or above 30 is guaranteed to make it harder to get pregnant.

You can find your BMI here:

The easiest way to do this is to track what you eat by counting calories. A website that makes this extremely easy is:

You just make an account there and input your personal information to find out how many calories you should be eating a day. Stay under the "net calories" and you'll be okay. This website helps you track your exercise as well, which is extremely important. Another reason why you want to be at a desirable weight is because you have no idea how much weight you'll gain when pregnant. You don't want to be 200 pounds, and then be struggling to lose 30 or 40 pounds of extra weight on top of that. So get your BMI and weight in check, create an exercise plan, and start making every calorie you eat count with My Daily Plate. Whatever you do, don't do any crash diets. Not only do they not work, they are extremely unhealthy and dangerous for you and your potential baby. Your body will be the baby's haven, so take care of it.

If you are smoking, drinking alcohol, engaging in illegal activities, Stop. Smoking has horrible effects on the body, and anyway "women who smoke are 60% more likely than nonsmokers to be infertile.* Besides, what's the point of bringing a child into the world only to purposefully expose them to the cancer causing effects of cigarettes? Even reside on your clothing from cigarettes in extremely harmful to a baby and his/her health. There's just no point. Even second hand smoke is harmful, so avoid clubs, bars, and parties where the environment is laced with smoke.

Alcohol can affect your fertility as well, so it is best to cut it out as soon as you can. Alcohol can create an imbalance of your menstrual cycle, it can cause lack of ovulation, and abnormal development of the endometrial lining.** Of course, there is always the infamous "Fetal Alcohol Syndrome". This causes mental retardation, growth deficiency, and disturbances in behavior in children. This occurs in about 30 - 40% of babies born to alcoholic women. I know that you've probably heard that a glass of wine is 'good' for you during pregnancy, but the truth is, there is no safe amount of alcohol that is established, so it's best to just cut it out.

Some people will recommend that you give up coffee and tea because of the high amounts of caffeine. Supposedly, if you drink five cups of coffee in a day, you could have a doubled chance of having a miscarriage.*****So abnormally high amounts of caffeine in a day can be dangerous, or even lead to preterm delivery or low birth weight, but there's no definite studies of this. Still, if you feel it may be harmful, stay away from it, or at least keep the doses of caffeine to a minimum.

As far as any illegal drug goes, just stop. Even marijuana, which some consider "harmless" can affect your chances of conceiving. THC in marijuana affects not only the brain, but the body. It has a direct affect on the woman's eggs. Marijuana raises the risk for an entopic pregnancy, which is the event that the pregnancy grows in the fallopian tubes, as opposed to the womb.***There is just no point. Besides, as a parent you want to be a good influence to your children.

Something extremely important before trying to conceive is to begin taking Prenatal Vitamins. You can get a prescription for these, or even get them at Wal-Mart. Make sure you get ones especially for pregnant women, or women trying to get pregnant...they contain a higher amount of folic acid, which is absolutely essential to a growing fetus. Folic acid helps prevent neural tube birth defects like spina bifida. Women who take folic acid before trying to conceive help cut the risk of birth defects by 50%****

To increase your chances of trying to conceive, find out when you ovulate. It's not too hard. A simple ovulation calculator can be found at:

This website is great because it tells you when you are most fertile, and tells you when the possible due date is. So during those dates, you want to get your groove on with your significant other. Of course, get rid of any and all birth control during this time. Keep in mind that birth control takes some time to cycle out of the body once you stop taking it. So take this time to eat right, exercise, and get your vitamins going. Also, try to get with your insurance and find out details as far as labor and delivery costs, what's covered, what's not. Find information on maternity leave in advance.

You can always invest in ovulation calculators that Wal-Mart. They come with ovulation thermometers and calendars. The only problem with this is that it involves too much planning and stress, and stress can definitely delay and cause changes in your menstrual cycle, which can make it unpredictable.

If you follow these steps and have sex on the days that you are ovulating, your chances of conceiving will be greatly increased.

*http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/16874634/

**http://www.ivillage.com/can-drinking-alcohol-affect-your-fertility/6-n-145401

***http://ezinearticles.com/?Smoking-Marijuana-Before-Trying-to-Conceive-a-Baby-Lowers-the-Chances&id=804274

****http://www.babyhopes.com/articles/folic-acid.html

*****http://www.fertilinet.com/caffeine_and_fertility_pregnancy.htm

www.mydailyplate.comhttp://www.babycenter.com/ovulation-calculatorhttp://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/