Sexual Positions To Improve Chances of Pregnancy

Efforts to conceive can be both exciting and anxious experiences. It would be exciting at first, when the wife's period schedule is late for few days. Anxious if the home pregnancy test kit shows disappointing results. If this cycle repeats for few months down the road, it would be rather depressing experiences. Though you shouldn't be worried about anything if you have only been trying to conceive for several months. Couples are considered having fertility problems if they have been trying for more than a year without any results.

But before you head out to reputable IVF clinic that will definitely cost a fortune, you should know the basics first, that there are certain sexual positions that you should adopt to increase your chances of pregnancy.

The sexual positions that may encourage pregnancy are:

• Missionary Position
  This is the oldest and most traditional sexual position. The man is on the top. This position allows sperm the right entrance to the cervix. The woman might want to put a small pillow under her hips, so after ejaculation, she can tilt her hips and let gravity works its work.

• Doggy Style
  The woman is on her knees, and he enters from behind. This position allows for deeper penetration.

• Spooning Position
  Lying side by side, he enters her from behind. Also use a pillow under her hips after ejaculation.

There are certain positions that should be avoided.

• Woman on Top
  Ladies, despite how tempted you are for this position, do avoid this position as this only cause most of sperm to slide out when he separates himself from you.

• Standing Position
  Same reason as above.

Please note, though these 2 positions are less favourable for successful conception, these positions do not prevent pregnancy. With these positions, sperm can enter uterus with the force of ejaculation and contraction of uterus usually followed after orgasm.

Good luck!

The Right Lifestyle to Improve Chances of Pregnancy

There are several reasons underlying why women are hard to conceive. These include, possibility of a structural problem with the reproductive organs, like blocked fallopian tubes, or a disease of the uterus like fibroids or endometriosis.

Most of the cases are due to a failure of ovulation. The eggs do not ripen and release when they are supposed to, usually caused by a hormonal imbalance. And at older age, our body is not producing enough sex hormones at the right time and in the right amounts to ovulate successfully.

There are good news to couples who are trying to conceive, without having to undergo methods of assisted reporductive technology. In late 2007, the US. Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School say that adopting a few lifestyle measures can drastically improve the chances of getting pregnant, at any age.

They followed a group of 17,544 married women who were infertile due to ovulation failure but who were trying to get pregnant. The women were part of a larger study of women's health called the Nurses' Health Study II, based at the Brigham and Women's Hospital at Harvard. The researchers followed them over an eight-year period, looking in particular whether or not they followed a range of dietary and lifestyle measures.

They looked at:
- the ratio of mono-unsaturated to trans fats in their diet
- protein consumption (and whether it came from animals or vegetables)
- carbohydrate consumption (including the amount of fibre they ate, and whether high or low glycaemic index)
- consumption of dairy products (and whether low or high-fat)
- iron consumption
- use of vitamin supplements
- body mass index (BMI, i.e. weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in metres)
- degree of physical activity.

The researchers took into account whether a woman smoked, drank alcohol or coffee, and/or had used oral contraceptives in the past.

Those women with the lowest rate of infertility (and most likely to fall pregnant) were those who ate less trans fat, less sugar, ate food with a low glycaemic index such as pasta and whole grains, ate more protein from vegetables than from animals, had a good iron intake, took multivitamins, exercised daily, kept their BMI between 20 and 25, and (surprisingly) consumed more high-fat dairy products and less low-fat dairy products.

The more of these measures they adopted, the lower the infertility rate and the higher the pregnancy rate. This was regardless of the woman's age, or whether she'd had children before.
For example, those who adopted just five of these measures had a 69 per cent reduced risk of infertility compared to those who adopted none of the measures.

Even following just one of these lifestyle measures reduced the risk of infertility by 30 per cent compared to those women who followed none. Of all the lifestyle measures, weight and diet, rather than exercise, were the most important.

These measures improve fertility was believed is to be caused by improved insulin resistance. They help regulate insulin and blood sugar levels and this in turn may help the sex hormones to regulate ovulation successfully.

Why high fat dairy products help remains a mystery though.
Now adopting these measures won't necessarily work for other types of infertility, such as blocked fallopian tubes. But what it does mean is fertility due to ovulation problems, which account for most infertility cases, can be partly prevented through modifications of diet and lifestyle, the authors say.

The researchers also added that these measures are also good for the pregnancy if a woman does conceive. Taking multivitamins containing folic acid helps prevent neural tube defects in the foetus. And keeping weight down reduces the chances of pregnancy complications like gestational diabetes or pre-eclampsia.

Improve Pregnancy Chances of IVF

For those of you who are trying to conceive by undergoing IVF (In vitro fertilization), you can relieved now because there is a way to improve the success rate of IVF.

IVF is a technique in which egg cells are fertilised by sperm outside the woman's womb, that is in vitro. IVF is a major treatment in infertility when other methods of assisted reporductive technology have failed. Though IVF is an option, but it's time consuming, expensive and has a high failure rate. Couples usually need to undergo IVF for several cycles before they succeed.

Now you may want to look at traditional Chinese acupuncture to improve your pregnancy chances. The theories behind it is may be caused by release of hormones which control our menstrual cycle, and relief of stress (oh well, you should ask your Chinese 'sinshe' for futher details).

Researchers have brought together all the trials they could find of needle acupuncture versus pretend acupuncture in women having an embryo transferred as part of IVF, to see what the sum of the evidence might be. Seven trials involving over 1300 women met the strict criteria of inclusion.

When there was active acupuncture, the pregnancy success after embryo transfer was higher. Around nine or 10 women had to have acupuncture for one to fall pregnant or take home a baby. When the researchers looked at studies where the background success rates of IVF were already high, the add-on benefits of acupuncture were less.

The indications show that acupuncture might do the job. But given it is cheap and relatively harmless, it may save you time and money to help falling pregnant.

More Interesting Facts on Caffeine

I loveee drinking coffee. So you may find more and more information on coffee from time to time in my blog (^-^)

Caffeine can be found in tea, coffee beans, guarana berries and cocoa nuts. It stimulates our central nervous system. The effects of caffeine differ on each and every one of us. Caffeine in short term could cause contraction of muscles, which may lead to:

· Twitching
· Increase heart rate
· Blood flow to stomach slows down
· Contriction of blood vessels on our skin
· More sugar is released from liver into our bloodstream
· Breathing tubes open up

Coffee can cause harder to sleep for some people. For some of us, it can also cause us to experience deep sleep for shorter periods, and shorter dream periods. So when we wake up, we would feel less rested.

Caffeine reaches maximum concentration in the body after 1-½ hours. After 3 to 7 hours, the caffeine in our body is metabolized and then expelled from our body.

Caffeine is metabolised by the liver, and passes into the bloodstream, crossing the blood/brain barrier into the brain. There it binds with receptors including dopamine receptors (which is why it makes you feel good) and adenosine receptors. Adenosine when bonded to its receptors slows down nerve cells, causing drowsiness. Caffeine also binds to adenosine receptors but doesn't slow down nerve cells. Since there is less adenosine binding, the nerve cells speed up, leading to feelings of restlessness.

Excessive caffeine intake, which is more than 4 or 5 cups of strong tea or coffee per day, can cause tremors, a fast heart rate, increased urination, nervousness, anxiety, stomach upsets and insomnia. In rare cases, caffeine can cause death relevant to heart condition.

Caffeine has a greater affect on children and the elderly. It can cause unborn babies to experience restlessness and withdrawal symptoms at birth, and produce hyperactivity and anxiety in kids.

The rate at which caffeine is metabolised by the body depends on the health of the liver. Women in general have more enzymes in the liver and metabolise drugs like caffeine faster than men.

The same class of enzymes metabolise caffeine and the hormones of pregnancy. It takes longer to get rid of the caffeine when these hormones are elevated in the body, that is, if you're pregnant or on the oral contraceptive pill. Low to moderate consumption of caffeine (one to two cups per day) has no effect on pregnant women’s birth weight or risk of miscarriage.

For some of you who are trying to make baby (^-^), please note that, caffeine has been shown to reduce fertility by damaging sperm in men. On women, it affects whether or not the fertilised egg (embryo) successfully implants in the uterus. Caffeine is a stressor; it stimulates the heart and brain, however also stimulates the release of a hormone that negatively interacts with the hormones that control fertility. As little as one cup of strong coffee a day can affect the chances of successful conception.

And for breastfeeding mom, do note down that caffeine can enter breast milk and significant amounts can cause wakefulness and agitation to the baby. Again, one cup per day seems to be the recommended upper level of intake.

However, there are some benefits in caffeine consumption. Caffeine is an antioxidant. Antioxidants are thought to help prevent heart disease and some cancers. Furthermore, coffee also contains flavonoids, which are also antioxidants. I read somewhere before that coffee is as strong as 6x antioxidants.

Caffeine increases alertness and is thought to improve concentration. It has also been used to help premature babies experiencing difficulties breathing. Minute amounts of caffeine given intravenously once a day can stimulate a newborn baby's brain to tell the lungs to inflate.

All in all, we can still drink coffee, or may be green tea or chocolate, as long as in moderate amount. So it is enough to benefit our body, and yet still far to experience the negative effects.