While making the choice to go seek the professional services and advice of a fertility clinic can be necessary and yet incredibly difficult, here are some helpful tips on how to get pregnant naturally before you feel the need to take the next step.
One in five couples struggle with problems conceiving a child. This can seem like a shockingly high statistic, especially if you find yourself and your partner as one of those “one in five”. Troubles conceiving can make you feel alone, depressed, misunderstood, and isolated. These are normal concerns for any parents that are having trouble getting pregnant, but there are choices and changes that you can make within your home and self before seeking out the help of a fertility clinic.
Physical Health
The absolute best way to get pregnant without the help of a fertility clinic is to be in prime physical health. Weight- both being underweight or overweight- can have catastrophic effects on the likelihood of conceiving a child. It’s important to achieve an ideal weight and healthy eating habits before attempting to get pregnant. Being physically active, exercising at least three to four times per week, it’s important to incorporate many different forms of exercise into your program: aerobic, strength training, and flexibility are all important factors in maintaining a body that is physically prepared for pregnancy.
- Aerobic Exercise
- Aerobic exercise improves circulation and cardiorespiratory health. Improving circulation as well as cardiovascular and respiratory health will not only increase your odds of becoming pregnant, but also improves the odds of a woman carrying her child to term without complications.
- Strength Training
- Strength training, especially core and pelvic floor exercises are crazy important for carrying a child to term without complications or associated injury. Not only that, but improving muscle tone is also a sure fire way to help lose any excess pounds you may be harboring- as just having muscle mass increases the number of calories your body uses in a day.
- Flexibility
- Flexibility exercises, like yoga, are really excellent for improving posture and balance – two other physical attributes that will aid in keeping a pregnancy complication free. Yoga also adds an added bonus of using breathing techniques to achieve mindfulness, and learning to destress is another great way to conceive naturally!
Another important set of points to consider when discussing physical health and pregnancy is ensuring that you are doing everything you can to improve your baseline health. Exercise and weight control are great, but also learn to pass on cigarettes, alcohol, caffeine, and recreational drugs, as all of these factors negatively affect your physical health and ability to conceive naturally without the help of a fertility clinic.
Mental Health
Mental health plays a huge role in being able to conceive a child. Being stressed, depressed, or feeling harried are all associated with hormone release that can actually retard ovulation, or through kinks into your cycle. Being relaxed and really enjoying the process of conceiving has been shown to increase the likelihood and speed of having a child naturally.
Indeed, certain medications that are prescribed for depression and other mental problems can have side effects that will dampen your sex drive and even the effectiveness of ovulation. Be sure and speak with your doctor about your concerns and goals concerning pregnancy. Work closely with your care providers and your partner to ensure that everyone is relaxed and exciting about becoming new parents.
Any fertility clinic you go to will first review your health history, medications,and lifestyle to find out if there are any barriers to getting pregnant before they begin to consider more invasive treatment. Make sure that you take the first step in creating healthy mental habits prior to seeking their advice.
Nutrition
While it may seem to have a pretty obvious connection with overall physical health, nutrition plays a huge role in conception all on its own. A part from ensuring healthy intake of common nutrients, like fiber, carbohydrates, protein, and essential fatty acids, there are also some key nutrients that support fertility.
- Folic Acid
- Folic acid is incredibly important for healthy fetal development. A healthy habit of ingesting at least 400-800 mcg of folic acid per day will reduce the risk of many developmental defects.
- Water
- Staying well hydrated plays a huge role in maintaining reproductive health. Drinking plenty of water is important for keeping a healthy balance of hormones and supports organ function. Water is huge in aiding in the body remove toxins and will help with appetite control as well.
- B Vitamins
- B vitamins – particularly B6- help regulate female sex hormones and mood. It also helps regulate estrogen and progesterone, two hormones that are essential for conceiving a child.
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin C helps trigger ovulation in women and supports healthy sperm motility and production in men.
Having a balanced diet, and ensuring that you are providing your body with adequate nutrition is a must for becoming pregnant. If your body feels as though it’s unable to allocate enough nutrition for its own function, there’s no way it will support the production of another body.
Ovulation
Knowing how to track your ovulation is a great way for people to be able to get pregnant without the use of a fertility clinic. Ovulation is the process by which the body releases eggs from the ovaries. There are hundreds of apps and kits available to help you track your ovulation, but it’s much more simple to do yourself than it may seem. Here are three common methods that women use to track their ovulation:
- Body Temperature
- Monitoring body temperature daily is one way to figure out when in your cycle you will be ovulating. Using a thermometer, track your basal body temperature. Your temperature will spike right after ovulation. This is a great time to have intercourse.
- Calendar Method
- If you are one of those women who have a regular cycle, recording the first day of your last menstrual period with the first day of your next menstrual period. Once you find out how long your regular cycle is, count back 8 to 18 days from the estimated beginning of your next period and that is when you should be ovulating.
- Cervical Mucus
- Monitoring your cervical mucus is a great way to become more aware of when your body is ovulating. During ovulation, cervical mucus becomes thicker, wetter, and stretchier. This appearance is what most women consider to be similar to “egg whites”. When you notice that your cervical mucus is at its peak production- chances are you’re ovulating and it’s time to get busy!
Conversation
Ensure that both yourself and your partner are experiencing a common goal. Realise each others expectations and be aware that you’re both trying to get pregnant. Nutrition and health are extremely important for fertility health in either parent. Try and sync schedules so that intercourse is encouraged during periods of ovulation, but that you’re also taking the time to enjoy one another and the process of trying to conceive. Your bodies and minds will become more in tune with one another, allowing for you to more easily conceive naturally without the help of a fertility clinic.
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