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The Right Way to Get Pregnant
By William Grigg
"Will my man make a good father of healthy children, and will I be as good a mother as my mom?"
"Will I have a healthy baby – 10 toes, 10 fingers and a working heart and head?"
"When is the best time to try to make a baby?"
"Will my baby and I be healthier if I see a doctor as soon as I get pregnant?"
Surprise! These questions have environment-related answers. Yes, even, to a degree, whether your "hot" man will make a good father – or, really, a father at all. We've looked at such questions at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). At NIEHS, we believe we've learned a lot that can help you with your questions about getting pregnant and the health of your baby-to-be.
A: It seems funny – or sad – that one couple makes a baby the very first time they have sex (whether they want a baby or not) while another couple can try and try for months without getting the child they want so badly.
People trying to have a baby have often been advised to aim for the woman's fertile time, midway between her periods. They are told to have intercourse on the day the woman ovulates or a couple of days before or afterward. Our Institute scientists, taking precise data on more than 200 healthy women trying to have a baby, have determined that you're actually most likely to get pregnant if you have sex the day you ovulate or the five days before. It seems that a man's sperm may be longer-lasting than some people previously believed, while a woman's ovum, or human egg, disappears more quickly.
Three days after intercourse, there might still be active sperm swimming around that can impregnate and fertilize a newly released egg, but if the sperm is not introduced until after the day of ovulation, a 2- or 3-day-old egg would be unlikely to still be in good enough shape to be fertilized, even by the freshest of sperm.
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