The Best Time To Get Pregnant: Making Decisions

Parents may talk all they want about the best time to get pregnant, but they don’t often get to decide. There are many approaches to pregnancy planning, but all of them hinge on such a vast repertoire of lifestyle changes it can be quite difficult to know where to begin.

First Things First

First of all, there is the menstrual cycle to think about. When an egg comes down that fallopian tube, the clock is set to a mere 12 to 20 hours. Since sperm tends to keep longer, a woman may want to schedule intercourse before ovulation actually occurs.

Of course, when we’re talking about the best time to get pregnant, there are bigger considerations to take on. Smoking, drinking, and drugs seem also self-explanatory, but it needs to be said here that these activities inhibit fertility and therefore must cease for a period of time before pregnancy can actually commence. If you are concerned with your weight, go on a diet and stick to it until your body weight has stabilized. Crash diets and pregnancy are a disastrous mix for your health and your baby’s well-being.

There are also pregnancy stages to think about, since in the span of ten months a lot of things can change. Your nutrition and exercise levels will have a huge effect on your course, and since all lifestyle changes entail killing the old habits, you don’t really want to think about these things when a baby is well on its way. If you have always thought about signing up to the gym (again, maybe), do it before you do the other thing that makes a baby.

When Sex Is Just Not Fun

There is also a matter of coordinating sexual intercourse, which on the surface sounds just about as romantic as diapers. But not only does regular (and not just often) intercourse assist in your chances of conception, it has also been shown to be enormously effective in maintaining a relationship in the face of big changes.

And if anything counts as a big change, it is a baby. So the best time to get pregnant is probably not now. Perhaps you ought to first take a good, hard, long look at your schedule.