Get pregnant faster

The best part of trying to get pregnant is the trying part so we’d suggest enjoying the journey instead of rushing to the destination. But if you are determined to have your baby in the year of the horse or need to produce a son before your sister-in-law does, here are some tricks that will increase your chances of conceiving soon after you start trying.

1. Prep your body

You’re more likely to have a successful pregnancy if your body is in baby-making shape. Take these prep steps before you start trying to conceive.

Start by cutting out the cocktails, stopping the cigarettes and reducing caffeine to just 1 or 2 cups a days. These interfere with your fertility and are harmful to your baby.

Schedule a preconception check-up with your doctor to make sure you don’t have any health issues that can affect your pregnancy. Your doctor is likely to put you on a folic acid supplement to protect against some birth defects.

The healthier you are, the easier it will be for you to get pregnant and stay pregnant. So start forming healthy habits like eating well and exercising moderately.

2. Supercharge your partner’s sperm

You’re not the only one who has to stay away from alcohol and tobacco. Your partner should too because alcohol and tobacco can affect sperm. He might also want to avoid staying in hot tubs or saunas for long periods as heat kills sperm.

Including more zinc, folic acid, calcium and vitamins C and D in his diet will help ensure his sperm is strong, healthy and has a better chance of fertilizing your egg.

It might take up to 3 months for these improvements to result in better sperm so get him started as soon as possible.

3. Have sex at the right time

The sure fire way to get pregnant is to have sex at least 3 times a week throughout your cycle. But sometimes that’s not easy to do with work and life getting in the way. So you can focus your baby-making efforts on your most fertile days.

Have sex every other day starting 5 days before you expect to ovulate. If you’re able to tell when you’re ovulating by using an ovulation predictor kit or observing your body’s ovulation symptoms, have sex on that day and the 2 days after as well.

Predicting ovulation is more of an art than a science, so even though there are only about 6 days a month when you’ll be able to fall pregnant, extending the fertile window you’re working with can help ensure there’s lots of healthy sperm waiting in your fallopian tubes when you do ovulate.

4. Skip the lube

Lubricants can be toxic to sperm, so using them can make it harder for you to conceive. Artificial lubricants can contain spermicide and even natural lubricants like olive oil or baby oil affect sperm’s ability to swim.

5. Lie down and do nothing

A Dutch study found that women who lay still for 15 minutes after being artificially inseminated were 50% more likely to conceive than women who got up straight away. While these findings don’t necessarily mean that lying down after sex will help your partner’s sperm along, there’s no harm giving it a shot.

6. Relax and have fun

Being stressed out affects the hormones that regulate your cycle, so if you’re anxious about getting pregnant, you might ovulate later or not at all, which will affect your chances of conceiving. Timing sex and expecting your partner to perform to schedule can also stress him out and cause problems on his end.

So try to relax and enjoy the process. Having fun in the bedroom instead of a ‘must conceive now’ mindset will boost your chances of success. There’s no evidence that some sexual positions are better for baby-making than others, so go ahead and keep things spicy.