Real life stories: pre-conception
"With both my pregnancies, I made an effort to make my diet and
lifestyle more healthy right from the day I started trying to conceive. My GP
told me that you should start taking a folic acid supplement as soon as you
stop using contraception, so that's what I did - it wasn't hard to
remember, as I was just replacing one pill with another.
"The way I look at it, as soon as you start having unprotected sex, you
could be pregnant without knowing it at any time. So you don't want to be
drinking too much, smoking or taking any medications that aren't safe in
pregnancy - just in case. I took a pregnancy supplement that contained folic
acid and lots of other vitamins and minerals from the word go - it's pretty
expensive, but I wanted to make sure I didn't have any nutritional
deficiencies that could make it harder for me to conceive.
"You have to make sure your other half isn't being too naughty either."
"I didn't cut out alcohol completely until I knew I was pregnant.
Both times it took me four months to conceive, which isn't very long, but
feels like a long time if don't allow yourself the occasional glass of
wine. At the same time, I was aware that drinking a lot, having too much
caffeine and eating unhealthily can all reduce your chances of getting
pregnant, so I tried to be pretty healthy. I ate lots of fresh fruit and veg,
and made sure I had regular meals. You have to make sure your other half
isn't being too naughty either - too much beer and takeaways don't make
for the healthiest sperm on the block.
"When I was trying to conceive the first time, I kept up my usual exercise
routine, swimming a couple of times a week and doing aerobics. This meant that
when I got pregnant, I was pretty fit, and could keep exercising moderately
throughout to keep me strong for the birth. I recovered very quickly after
Callum was born and I'm sure it was because I was fit. This time around,
it's harder to fit exercise in around working and being with Callum, but I
do what I can. I don't feel as fit, and I've gained more weight, but
that's natural with a second pregnancy.
"When it comes to actually getting pregnant, my tip would be to relax and
try not to get too obsessed. It's very easy to see it as a project and
start having sex to a strict military timetable, but in my experience that just
doesn't work. Both times around, I conceived once I made a decision to stop
counting days and worrying about whether I was ovulating, and just tried to
have sex at least every other day.
"I knew that I was likely to ovulate around 14 days before my period
started, but as my cycle is a bit irregular, it was quite hard to work out so I
just tried not to worry about it. I've got friends who were much more
scientific, working out ovulation by making charts of their daily temperature -
it goes up slightly just before you ovulate - or monitoring their cervical
mucus.
"And once you're pregnant, you'll forget all about how long it took you to get there."
"You can also buy ovulation detection kits, where you pee on a stick for five days in a row, but they're really pricey and no guarantee of success. It's disappointing when you don't get pregnant straight away, and waiting to find out each month can be quite agonising, but keeping a calm body and mind is really the best way to get the desired result. And once you're pregnant, you'll forget all about how long it took you to get there."
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