A healthy couple at prime reproductive age (below 35) has about 25% chance of conceiving each month and only about half of all couples get pregnant within 6 months of trying, about 80% within a year and approximately 90% at the end of two years.

This site is for any woman who wants to have a baby, from those who are thinking about it for the first time, to those who have been trying for months or even years without success.

As women we spend most of our reproductive years trying not to get pregnant and then finding out that getting pregnant isn’t as easy as we initially thought can feel absolutely awful.

I will be sharing pratical tips, ideas and strategies that you can put to use right away that will greatly enhance your chances of conceiving that dream baby.

1. If You Are Looking To get Pregnant, Your Weight Matters:

Did you know that weight plays a significant role in fertility? In fact more than 12% of all infertility patients suffers from weight related infertility.

Research shows that the risk of infertility increases with the degree of obesity. In other words, the heavier you are, the bigger the problem,  but on a positive note scientists have found that losing a small amount of weight, say 10% is enough to trigger ovulation and increase fertility.

One study concluded that when overweight infertile women, successfully followed a weight loss and exercise programme for 6 months, their preiods returned to normal and most went on to have healthy babies.

If you are overweight or underweight, your body may be having trouble regulating its natural cycle. There are many reasons for this.

For one, women who are overweight tend to have a higher percentage of fat and fat cells produce oestrogen.  Excessively high levels of oestrogen have a negative influence on menstruation and ovulation, making it difficult to become pregnant.

So it is important that you are within a healthy weight range for your body to produce the appropriate amount of hormones to regulate ovulation and menstruation.

In his book, Recipes for Self Healing, Daverick Leggett (author of several dietary books based on the principles of chinese medicine) advice that ;“Overweight people need to nourish themselves rather than starve or punish themselves in order to regulate obesity.

This means eating warm cooked foods, plenty of vegetable soups and stews, a little lean and low fat protein, whole grains and legumes, flavoured with gentle warm energy pungent herbs and spices.

Also make sure you get regular exercise, preferably daily.

Also try for a gradual weight loss of about 1-2lbs a week instead of a drastic weight loss.

It is also important that you work on your emotional relationship with food, because it is just as important, if not more more so than diet and exercise. As Daverick Legget said, “Deeper at work in the psyche there are often powerful messages about the body that no amount of dieting will shift”

If you are underweight:

In normal adult women, fat comprises of about 28% of their body weight and if this drops below 22% ovulation could stop.

Even if a woman whose body fat % is less than 22% is able to conceive, the theory is that she has a greater chance of suffering a miscarriage because she does not have enough fat stores to sustain the pregnancy.

Research shows that when healthy women were put on a diet of 1,000 calories a day, their periods became irregular, because progesterone and oestrogen levels dropped significantly.

Another, study showed that only 27% of women on a low-fat diet were actually ovulating. Fortunately, gaining weight can restore fertility back to normal.

The solution is to aim for a BMI (body mass Index) of between 20 and 25 (the optimum being 24). When you get your weight back to normal, (through a healthy diet that includes whole grains, vegetables, fruit, oily fish nuts and seeds), try and maintain it for 3 to 4 months before trying for a baby. This is because chances are you may have nutritional deficiencies as a result of your previous restricted food intake.

2. It is Crucial You Know Your “Fertile Window”

Did you know that as a woman you only have 2-3 days in any month when you can actually get pregnant?

If you are looking for Ways To Get Pregnant you should get to a point where you can tell with great accuracy when you are about to ovulate and when you are ovulating in any given month.

Ovulation is simply when one, sometimes more than one egg is released from one of your ovaries.

Each month up to 20 eggs mature inside your ovaries, but only the ripest one is released and swept into your fallopian tubes.

To become pregnant one of your egg or sometimes eggs have to meet your partners sperm.

Your egg though can only survive for 24 hours after it has been released from your ovaries. So in an ideal situation your partners sperm should be waiting for your egg in your fallopian tube, your uterus or your vagina.

This means you should be having intercourse before you think you will ovulate and up until the day of you ovulate.

So how can you tell when you are ovulating? There are many methods for predicting ouvation including useing your cervical mucus, measuring your basal body temperature and using ovulation kits.

To read more on ways to get pregnant, understand and be able to predict your fertile window with great accuracy click ovulation.

You can also read more about your menstrual cycle. To do so, click menstrual cycle

3. A good multivitamin and mineral supplement is very important:

because no matter how well you eat, foods don’t always contain the amount of nutrients you expect them to contain for several reasons.

Firstly, the nutritional content of many natural foods have been stripped by modern agricultural farming and production processes.

For example did you know that 80% of zinc is removed from wheat during the milling process just to ensure that bread has a longer shelf life?

Secondly, the soil food is grown on today lack a lot of nutrients due to overuse and commercial farming methods. So even foods we regard as healthy like vegetables may not necessarily contain the nutrients you expect them to.

Thirdly, consider the effects of additives, preservatives and toxins in your food and you can see how easy it is for your fertility to be affected.

Also according to research from the University of Leeds, women who take daily multivitamin tablets can double their chances of getting pregnant, because it can help to produce better quality eggs.

So it is crucial that you include high quality supplements in your diet if you are looking for ways to get pregnant

4. Avoid Stress Because It Affects Your Ability To Get Pregnant:

The second but important way to get pregnant is to avoid stress. This is because stress can suppress ovulation and your menstrual cycle because without a shadow of doubt, the state of your mind affects your body and in turn your ability to conceive.

Research has shown that stress can trigger the release of the stress hormone cortisol, which can interfere with your hormonal balance.

Too much cortisol in your blood stream can also affect your sex hormones, the functioning of the hypothalamus and your pituitary glands.

Avoid Stress If You Are Looking To Get Pregnant

Stress can affect your partners’s hormonal balance too and some researchers suggest that stress causes infertility because it triggers the production of malformed eggs and sperms.

Pregnancies created by damaged sperm or eggs tend to result in miscarriages so early that you may not even realise you were ever pregnant.

Stress in men can also affect the hormones controlling sperm production.

One study of 157 men conducted by the University of California in 1997 showed that a very depressing experience, such as the loss of a loved one, can temporarily reduce a man’s sperm count.

So your emotional health is just as important as your physical health if you are looking get pregnant.

What are some of the things you can do to reduce stress? Take a good multivitamin supplement because they will help keep the adrenal glands functioning well .

Tip On How To Reduce Your Stress Levels

Siberian Ginseng is an excellent herb to use  if you are under a lot stress. It has a long history in helping with adrenal function and calming the body. It is also classed as an adaptogen i.e. it provides energy when required and helps to combat stress and fatigue if someone is under pressure. It helps to encourage the normal functioning of the adrenals and acts as a tonic to these glands.

You can also meditate, take up yoga, exercise, and try to stay positive.

5. Cleanse Your Life Of Pesticides:

Go Organic Where Possible. When you pile your plate with vegetables, on the positive side you get a load of nutrients, but on the negative side you also get the pesticides, insecticides and other chemicals used to protect crops from bugs, rodents and bacteria.

It has been estimated that some fruits and vegetables are sprayed up to 10 times with pesticides before they reach the shops.

If you use pesticides in your garden, or protect your pets from fleas, or may be even rid your house of insects or rodents then you are exposed to even more.

Pesticides are potent, extremely toxic chemicals that interfere with the hormonal health in both men and women.One study looking at male fertility suggests that a common pesticide sprayed on food and also used in insect killers can suppress levels of testosterone levels by as much as 10% and reduce fertility

Pesticides In Fruits And Vegetables Can Affect Fertility

One simple step you can take to reduce the amount of pesticides you consume with your fruits and vegetables is to wash and/or peel before consuming. For example remove the outer leaves of cabbage and other greens before eating them.

You can also use vegetable washes available at heath food stores or simply use a few teaspoons of vinegar in a bowl of water and use to wash your fruits and vegetables.

Remember though that washing won’t alter the pesticide content already in the fruits and vegetables, but by peeling you remove the skin, which is where most of the residue lie. Just by removing the skins alone, you could lower the pesticide levels by as much as three quarters.

Buy organic food whenever possible and make sure you are getting enough fibre in your foods because it helps to prevent the absorption of toxins into the blood stream.

6. Try Fertility Boosting Herbs Such As Agnus Castus.

In addition to vitamin and mineral supplements, you may find it helpful to try some herbal remedies.

Herbs are the oldest form of medicine and are the foundation for many pharmaceutical drugs.

For example, aspirin was originally extracted from willow bark but remember that herbs should only be used under the guidance of a qualified practitioner.

Agnus castus also known as vitex or chasteberry,

It is useful as a herbal treatment for infertility, particulary in cases with established luteal phasse defect ( shortened second half of the menstrual cycle) and high levels of the hormone prolactin.

In one trial, 48 women (aged between 23 and 39) diagnosed with infertility took agnus castus once daily for 3 months. 7 become pregnant during the trial and 25 experienced normalised progesterone levels – which may increase the chances of getting pregnant.

Why not get more tips about ways to get pregnant by getting Lisa Olson’s Pregnancy Miracle HERE

7. Control Your Blood Sugar Levels:

The amount of sugar that is circulating in your bloodstream can have a huge impact on your fertility and indeed your ability to sustain a pregnancy.

Your blood sugar levels start to climb every time you eat and your body then produces insulin in response to move the sugar into your cells to be used for energy.

If you eat whole grain, vegetables and fruits, nuts, seeds, oily fish and legumes, you are on the right track because these are digested and absorbed slowly and your blood sugar and insulin levels will rise and fall gradually within the normal range.

If you eat to many sugary and processed foods e.g. white bread, cakes, pastry etc, your blood sugar and insulin levels can shoot up faster and faster, way above the normal range. This is unsettle your reproductive hormones and hinder ovulation.

Overproduction of insulin – and a resulting condition called insulin resistance  – lies at the root of many problems which hinder fertility, including obesity, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and diabetes.

Even if you don’t have insuling resistance, a diet based on whole foods that are low in glycaemic index (GI) is a good idea for booth your health and your fertility.

Also remember that sugar causes swings in blood sugar which ultimately spark off sugar cravings and bingeing habits that will make you eat the wrong foods and put on weight.

8. These Over The Counter Drug Affects Fertility, Are You Taking Any?

You should try to avoid taking any drugs while pregnant, but most especially if you are taking sleeping pills, tranquillisers or painkillers you need to talk to your doctor about finding other ways to deal with the problems so that you can come off these drugs.

Also steroids such as cortisone and prednisone, which are used to treat conditions such as asthma and lupus, can prevent your pituitary gland from producing enough follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinising (LH) for normal ovulation to occur.

Also medication such as paracetamol and ibuprofen can inhibit the production of prostaglandins which are essential for the healthy development of the foetus.

Bottom line?If you are taking regular medication, check with your doctor that it is not affecting your ability to get pregnant in any way.

9. Using Complementary Therapies To Get Pregnant:

In a great majority of cases, diet, lifestyle and supplementation are the most important factors in boosting fertility. If,  however,  you feel you want to give yourself some extra help, you may want to try a complementary therapy that appeals to you.

Bear in mind that there is enough anecdoctal evidence ( and in some cases good scientific research) to suggest that complementary medicine such as Herbal medicine, Acupuncture, Homeopathy, Reflexology, Hypnotherapy, Aromatherapy, Osteopathy, and even Yoga can maximise your chances of conceiving.

Like orthodox medicine, alternative therapy does not always have the answers but they do have a lot to offer because they look at you holistically.

You can read more by visiting Ways To Get Pregnant Using Complementary Therapies.

10. Is Your Mind On Board? The Power of Affirmations and Visualisations:

Do not undersetimate the power of our mind. If you can harness this power and make it work for you, almost anything is possible.

One of the biggest challenge you may face is when your mind- consciously or unconsciously decides to work against you.

Outwardly people may appear happy, balanced, and self-confident while inwardly they are gripped by a tempest from the second they wake up.

Did you know that in chinese medicine, the heart is directly linked to the womb and each can impact on the other.

Many of the negative thought that revolve around our brains on a loop have been there for a long time – since childhood even.  The whole point of affirmations is to reset the loop with positive thoughts.

Affirmations are simple statements of intentions that you wish to be true, to become facts in your life.

You have to repeat then in order to reinforce the desire. The first time you attempt affirmations, ou may feel self conscious and a little silly but that is okay. With enough daily repetitions all that feeling of silliness and disbelief will dissolve.

David Hamilton, author of “How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body” writes: Repeating a statement about something being true will create neural connections (in the brain) as though we were experiencing the thing being true (in reality)

Here are some of the examples of affirmations you can use:

1. My ovaries are healthy and work perfectly, releasing an egg every month.

2. I will become pregnant when my body is ready and I am healthy and well.

3. My relationship is good and I feel supported.

4. I love myself, respect myself and I let go of the things holding me back in my path towards a healthy conception

If you really struggle believing these, then try writing and rewriting them daily. Eventually these statements will become true for you

You can also start a GRATITUDE DIARY, concentrating on the good things in your life.

11. Investigate Reproductive Issues That May be Affecting Your Ability To Get Pregnant

One important thing that you will notice once you start charting, is the distinctive pattern of cervical mucus throughout your monthly cycle.

Unlike men who are always fertile, a woman is only fertile for a few days around her ovulation and therefore only produces the substance necessary for sperm mobility and nourishment during that time.

Did you know that the cervical mucus you produce during your fertile periods resemble the semen? Let’s look at the cervical mucus in stages and how knowing this can help you get pregnant:

If your answer is Yes, then you are well on your way to conceiving that dream baby, but if your answer is No, then you really need to keep reading…

1. How Your Cervical Mucus Changes In A Month

Stage 1: Right after your period you may have a very dry vaginal secretion.

Stage 2: After a few days of this dryness, you may begin to develop a type of cervical mucus that can be described as sticky, sort of like a paste.

Stage 3: Then it turns creamy. Sometimes it is so wet and creamy it is difficult to hold.

Appearance of Fertile Cervical Mucus

Stage 4: The final and most fertile cervical mucus resembles raw egg white. It is extremely slippery and stretchy. It can also be very watery and may even leave a fairly symmetrical round pattern of fluid on your underwear due to its high water content.

The most important feature of this extremely fertile cervical mucus is it’s lubricative quality. If you are therefore looking to get pregnant you need to pay attention to the slippery sensation you feel as you approach ovulation.

A tip to help you identify the actual quality of your cervical mucus is to notice what it feels like when you run your tissue across your vaginal lips. Does it feel dry, smooth, or does it glide across?

2. Natural Ways To Increase Your Fertlity- Factors That Can Affect Your Cervical Mucus That You Need To Be Aware off

You should also be aware that as with temperature there are certain factors which can potentially mask cervical mucus. Some of them are:

a) Vaginal infections

b) Seminal fluid

c) Arousal fluid

d) Spermicides and lubricants

e) Antihistamines (this has the tendency to dry the cervical mucus)

If you have recently come off the pill you may notice one of two things:

1. You may not produce much cervical mucus at all since the pill can temporarily compromise the ability of the vagina to develop healthy cervical mucus.

2. On the other hand YOU COULD have continuous fertile quality fluid for up to several months. This is caused by the excess synthetic oestrogen being released from the fatty tissues in the body.

Another reason for the presence of excess fertile fluid is that women on the pill often develop cervical erosion, a condition in which the lining of the cervical canal grows out over the opening of the cervix causing an irritation that leads to a type of wet cervical mucus.

So, bottom line is this, you are most fertile when your cervical mucus is like raw eggwhite, stretchy, slippery and clear. If your aim is to become pregnant then ensure that you have intercourse every day that you have wet, eggwhite, stretchy cervical mucus or vaginal sensation.

3. How To Increase Your Fertility – Understanding The Position Of Your Cervix

Your cervix, the lower part of your uterus, extends into the vagina and goes through some amazing changes throughout your cycle, all which you can easily feel.

Get Pregnant By Charting Your Cervical Mucus

As with the cervical fluid, the cervix itself prepares for pregnancy every cycle by transforming into a perfect “biological gate” through which the sperm can pass on their way to finding the egg.

It does this by becoming soft and open around ovulation in order to allow the sperm passage through the uterus and on to the fallopian tube.

After your period and under the influence of oestrogen, your cervix starts to change. One of the best ways to remember how your cervix feels as you approach ovulation is the acronym SHOW which stands for Soft, High, Open, Wet

Your cervix is normally firm like the tip of your nose, but as you approach ovulation is changes and becomse soft and rather mushy, like your lips.

In addition it is normally fairly low and closed feeling somewhat like a dimple, but it then rises and opens in response to oestrogen around ovulation.

Lastly it is the cervix itself that emits fertile quality wet cervical fluid when the egg is to be released.

So if you are looking for tips on on how to get pregnant, start charting your cervix. Start to feel it on a regular basis so that you can begin to tell when you are approaching ovulation. Remember when you are close to being very fertile, your cervix will start to feel soft, mushy and open

Why not find out more by getting The Pregnancy Miracle Book?

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You can then use this information to discover several things about your cycle, the most important one perhaps being whether you can or can’t get pregnant on any given day.

As you may or may not be aware, the three primary fertility signs virtually all ovulating women produce are:

1. Waking temperature
2. Cervical fluid
3. Cervical position

Your waking temperature is perhaps the easiest sign to observe for the simple reason that it is very graphic and will be the topic of our discussion here.

A woman’s temperature before ovulation will typically range from about 97.0 to 97.5 degrees Fahrenheit with after ovulation temperature ranging from 97.6 to 98.6 degrees.

Charting Your Body Temperature To Increase Fertility

If a woman gets pregnant her temperature remains elevated throughout her pregnancy.

Did you know that after ovulation your temperature is likely to remain elevated until your next period, usually 12 -16 days later?

Your temperature rises as a result of the heat inducing hormone, progesterone. This hormone is released by the follicle that previously housed your egg before it burst out of the ovary – commonly called corpus luteum.

When charting and interpreting your temperature, it is important that you are looking for a pattern of lows and highs.

You will notice that your temperature before ovulation will go up and down in a low range and the temperature after ovulation will go up and down in a high range.

So when you begin to chart your body temperature, a rise in your body temperature above the normal range means that ovulation has already occurred.

I want to stress again that “the rise in waking temperature almost always indicate that Ovulation has taken place and does not reveal impending ovulation.”

You need to be aware that certain factors can increase your waking temperature and some of them are:

a) Having a fever
b) Using an electronic blanket
c) Taking your temperature at a different time
d) Drinking alcohol the night before

Another thing to be aware of is that you can have delayed ovulation and there are many things that can cause this: stress, travel, moving, illness, medication, strenuous exercise, and sudden weight change.

So if you are looking to increase your fertility or better still want to be able to tell accurately when you can or cannot get pregnant in a particular month, you can use the temperature method also called the basal body temperature.

To read about the second fertility sign – the Cervical Mucus click here,

This myth is responsible for many unplanned pregnancies and unfortunately the ability for so many couple to conceive naturally.

In reality cycles vary tremendously from one woman to the next and often within each woman herself, though most cycles are between 24-36 days, some women like myself sometimes experience 20 day cycles.

Fertility awareness is simply a way of understanding your reproduction and is simply done by observing and charting scientifically proven fertility signs that determine whether or not you are fertile on any given day.

Your 3 Primary Fertllity Signs are

1. Waking Temperature
2. Cervical Fluid and
3. Cervical Position

Fertility awareness education is based on pure biological principles such as the functions of oestrogen, progesterone, luteinizing hormone and corpus luteum.

Daily charting of your 3 primary fertility signs will help you detect potential gynecological problems (if you have any) such as:

a) viginal infections
b) irregular periods
c) cervical anomalies
d) breast lumps

just to mention a few.

There are 3 Simple Things That You Can Do That Will Naturally Increase Your Fertility Level

1. Eat Natural, Wholesome and Healthy Foods: This is perhaps one of the simplest thing you could do if you would like to conceive.

Good food is not all about eating to get energy but about eating so that your body can repair and function at its’s best.

2. You Need To Stop Smoking If You Currently Do: There is nothing as harmful to your health and fertility as the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes. These toxic chemicals not only affect the functioning of the ovaries, but they also affect your hormones and other organs. Smoking can lead to menstrual irregularities and even anovulation (a situation where your body fails to release eggs from the ovaries)

There is also a link between smoking and cervical cancer not to mention cancer of the lungs.

Worse still, did you know that a pregnant woman who smokes is basically putting cigarette to her unborn baby’s mouth?

I know if can be a difficult habit to kick, but if you really cannot imagine life without cigarettes, then can you at least give it up for some time? Giving it up for maybe a year or at least 9 months while the baby is in your womb will give that child a chance of been born healthy and not addicted to nicotine.

Celiac disease is a genetic condition that causes those affected to have difficulty in absorbing nutrients from the food they eat. This condition is mainly caused by a reaction to gluten (a type of protein) found in foods like wheat, oats, barley and rye.

Some of the symptoms of celiac disease include diarrhea, loose greasy stools, fatigue and abdominal distention, although it is possible to have this condition and not show any of these symptoms.

What gluten does in people with this genetic condition is affect the linning of the small intestine making them unable to absorb important nutrients like folic acid and other important vitamins and minerals. If your body is unable to absorb nutrients from the food you eat, then conception may become difficult and even if it takes place, sustaining the pregnancy may be an issue.

Even if the woman is able to conceive and sustain the pregnancy, it is still possible that the baby may be born birth defects because it lacked essential nutrients during formation.

So if you ever suffer from recurrent miscarriages, then it is worth getting yourself checked out, it is better to know and rule it out, than not to.