Tips for Conceiving: 6 Must-Try Baby-making Ideas

Use an ovulation prediction kit

If you’ve been winging it or just having sex when you feel like the time is right, you may not be having intercourse during a time when you can conceive.  Timing intercourse close to ovulation is one of the best ways to get pregnant.  An ovulation prediction kit will tell you approximately when you will ovulate.  Once you get a positive result, you can expect to ovulate in the next day or two.  If you start having sex as soon as you get a positive result and continue for 2 or 3 days after, you will have a greater chance of conceiving.

Pick up the pace when you feel aroused or wet

Just before ovulation you will start to feel wetter.  Your cervical mucus increases and becomes stretchy, thin, and slippery.  It will look similar to egg-whites.  If you notice egg-white mucus or you feel wet, it could likely mean that you are approaching ovulation.  Sexual arousal and an increased sex-drive are also signs that you are fertile.  Women often feel more aroused when they ovulate due to hormonal changes that happen around that time.

Aim for the "O"

Sometimes couples lose that loving feeling when they are trying to conceive, but enjoyable sex may be the key to getting pregnant.  There is some evidence that female orgasm can improve your chances of getting pregnant.  The debate is out on this, but the theory is that when a woman has an orgasm, the rhythmic contractions help to suck the sperm up into the uterus.

Stay in bed

What goes up, might come down… and out.  This is the rationale behind staying in bed after sex.  Some women will even prop a pillow under their hips to help keep sperm inside the vagina longer.  The pillow may not be necessary, but it can’t hurt.  Staying in bed for 20 minutes after intercourse will help ensure that sperm have had time to travel towards the fallopian tubes and will help keep everything from leaking back out.

Try the Sperm Meets Egg Plan

The sperm meets egg plan is an easy to follow plan that makes timing intercourse easy.  This is how it works.  After your period, starting on cycle day 8 you should try to have sex every other day.  On cycle day 10, you should start testing with an ovulation test kit every day until you get a positive result.  Once you get a positive test you should try to have sex for 3 days in a row.  Then skip one day.  Then have sex again.

Have sex 2 days before you ovulate

Researchers have evaluated the timing of intercourse with pregnancy outcomes and what they discovered was that having intercourse two days before ovulation was the best time to get pregnant.  This is likely because of a process known as capacitation.  Capacitation takes place once sperm enter a woman’s body.  When sperm enter the reproductive track they go through a series of changes that make them more mobile and allow them to penetrate the egg.  This process takes up to 10 hours.  Thus, having sex a couple of days before ovulation, ensures that there are ready-to-fertilize sperm available when the egg is released during ovulation.