During pregnancy

• Getting Started on Getting Pregnant
  • If you’re considering having a baby, you probably have wondered how long it will take to get pregnant, when to have sex, and how often. Find the answers to your questions here.

• The Odds of Getting Pregnant
  • It’s a common question: What are the odds that I’ll get pregnant this month? For most couples trying to conceive, the odds that a woman will become pregnant are 15% to 25% in any particular month.

But there are some things that can affect your chance of getting pregnant:

• After you reach age 30, your chances of conceiving in any given month fall, and they decrease as you age, dropping steeply in your 40s.
• Irregular menstrual cycles. Having an irregular cycle makes it tricky to calculate when you’re ovulating, thus making it difficult to know the ideal time to have sex.
• Frequency of sex. The less often you have sex, the less likely you are to get pregnant.
• Amount of time you’ve been trying to conceive. If you haven’t gotten pregnant after one year of trying to conceive, your chances of becoming pregnant may be lower. Talk to your doctor about tests for female and male infertility.
• Illnesses or medical conditions can affect pregnancy.

• Understanding Menstrual Cycles
  • Knowing more about menstrual cycles may help.
  • A woman’s cycle begins on the first day that they notice bright red blood — not just spotting — and it ends on the day before the next cycle begins. A cycle can take 21 to 35 days — or more.
  • If their cycle varies in length by a few days from one month to the next, that’s considered irregular — and common. Many women don’t have regular cycles. It doesn’t necessarily mean anything is wrong.
• Having Sex, Getting Pregnant
  • Here’s another common question from couples trying to conceive: How often should we have sex? In short, the answer is often.
  • A lot of couples trying to conceive spend a lot of energy timing sex, with mathematical precision, to calculate when a woman is prime for ovulation. Theoretically, the approach makes sense. Recent studies have shown the window of opportunity for a sperm to fertilize an egg is pretty small: Essentially, it’s only 3-5 days leading up to ovulation and the day of ovulation itself. Your best chances are 1-2 days prior to ovulation. Doctors recommend intercourse every other day starting the week before ovulation or beginning after the end of your period.
  • But while timing your lovemaking exclusively to those few days makes logical sense, it also has some drawbacks — primarily because your body doesn’t always behave with clockwork regularity. Even if your cycle is regular, ovulation can occur at any time during the cycle. If you’re having sex on the day you think you’re ovulating, and you’re off by a few days, you may be out of luck.
  • So the expert advice is to hedge your bets: Have sex at least two to three times every week. As long as the man has a normal sperm count, having sex every other day (or every day) further increases your chances of getting pregnant.

• Going Off the Pill to Get Pregnant
  • How long does it take for the effects of birth control medication to subside? It’s actually possible to become pregnant immediately after going off the pill — as soon as the pill’s hormones are out of your system — although it may take a few months before ovulation begins normally again.
  • Is it safe to conceive right after you go off the pill? Yes. Women who conceive immediately after going off the pill are as likely to have a healthy baby as women who waited a few months in between.

During Pregnancy stages

Stages of pregnancy

Pregnancy lasts about 40 weeks, counting from the first day of your last normal period. The weeks are grouped into three trimesters. Find out what’s happening with you and your baby in these three stages.

First Trimester (week 1 – week 12)

During the first trimester your body undergoes many changes. Hormonal changes affect almost every organ system in your body. These changes can trigger symptoms even in the very first weeks of pregnancy. Your period stopping is a clear sign that you are pregnant. Other changes may include:

• Extreme tiredness
• Tender, swollen breasts. Your nipples might also stick out.
• Upset stomach with or without throwing up (morning sickness)
• Cravings or distaste for certain foods
• Mood swings
• Constipation (trouble having bowel movements)
• Need to pass urine more often
• Headache
• Heartburn
• Weight gain or loss

As your body changes, you might need to make changes to your daily routine, such as going to bed earlier or eating frequent, small meals. Fortunately, most of these discomforts will go away as your pregnancy progresses. And some women might not feel any discomfort at all! If you have been pregnant before, you might feel differently this time around. Just as each woman is different, so is each pregnancy.

Second Trimester (week 13 – week 28)

Most women find the second trimester of pregnancy easier than the first. But it is just as important to stay informed about your pregnancy during these months.

You might notice that symptoms like nausea and fatigue are going away. But other new, more noticeable changes to your body are now happening. Your abdomen will expand as the baby continues to grow. And before this trimester is over, you will feel your baby beginning to move!

As your body changes to make room for your growing baby, you may have:

• Body aches, such as back, abdomen, groin, or thigh pain
• Stretch marks on your abdomen, breasts, thighs, or buttocks
• Darkening of the skin around your nipples
• A line on the skin running from belly button to pubic hairline
• Patches of darker skin, usually over the cheeks, forehead, nose, or upper lip. Patches often match on both sides of the face. This is sometimes called the mask of pregnancy.
• Numb or tingling hands, called carpal tunnel syndrome
• Itching on the abdomen, palms, and soles of the feet. (Call your doctor if you have nausea, loss of appetite, vomiting, jaundice or fatigue combined with itching. These can be signs of a serious liver problem.)
• Swelling of the ankles, fingers, and face. (If you notice any sudden or extreme swelling or if you gain a lot of weight really quickly, call your doctor right away. This could be a sign of preeclampsia-> (also known as toxemia, it is a syndrome occurring in a pregnant woman after her 20th week of pregnancy that causes high blood pressure and problems with the kidneys and other organs. Symptoms include sudden increase in blood pressure, too much protein in the urine, swelling in a woman’s face and hands, and headache.)

Third Trimester (week 29 – week 40)

You’re in the home stretch! Some of the same discomforts you had in your second trimester will continue. Plus, many women find breathing difficult and notice they have to go to the bathroom even more often. This is because the baby is getting bigger and it is putting more pressure on your organs. Don’t worry, your baby is fine and these problems will lessen once you give birth.

Some new body changes you might notice in the third trimester include:

• Shortness of breath
• Heartburn
• Swelling of the ankles, fingers, and face. (If you notice any sudden or extreme swelling or if you gain a lot of weight really quickly, call your doctor right away. This could be a sign of preeclampsia.)
• Hemorrhoids
• Tender breasts, which may leak a watery pre-milk called colostrum.
• Your belly button may stick out
• Trouble sleeping
• The baby “dropping”, or moving lower in your abdomen
• Contractions, which can be a sign of real or false labor

As you near your due date, your cervix becomes thinner and softer (called effacing). This is a normal, natural process that helps the birth canal (vagina) to open during the birthing process. Your doctor will check your progress with a vaginal exam as you near your due date. Get excited — the final countdown has begun!