Preparing your body

Low-fat and healthy nutrition is always good for your body – but especially when it comes to helping your reproductive system. A balanced diet contains sufficient amounts of most nutrients – such as vitamins and minerals in fresh fruit, salads and vegetables or calcium in yoghurt, rice and orange juice. Just as important are iron for the supply of oxygen to the blood (red meat, pulses, wholemeal bread) and iodine for the thyroid function (fish or kiwis).

Healthy eating also boosts the quality of sperm too. Your partner can help by taking a lot of vitamin C, E and B12 at this time. He probably will not even have to make any great changes, as all three vitamins can be found in a great many foods.

Prevent a possible lack of folic acid in good time. It is a B vitamin, which, for example, aids metabolic processes such as the generation of new cells and red blood cells. Folic acid has been shown to increase fertility and is found in spinach, tomatoes and beetroot for example – however not nearly enough with a view to your planned pregnancy. For in the first three months, your body will need so much of it that it would be best for you to talk to your doctor now. He or she can recommend folic acid supplements from the chemist for you.

The better you know your menstrual cycle, the more precisely you will be able to define your fertile days. For this, measure your temperature at the same time every morning on waking.  If there is a distinct increase, it is a sign that you have ovulated and that you could become pregnant. If you now continue to measure your next few cycles and track your temperature curve, you will be able to predict your next ovulation with reasonable accuracy. The perfect time to fertilise the egg is in the following hours. And, if in the next month the temperature peak lasts longer than eighteen days, then let us congratulate you: you are probably pregnant.

To calculate your fertile days easily, you can of course also use a fertility calendar.

* Important! A fertility calendar is based on a simple calculation of averages. We strongly advise you against using this as a method of contraception. Should your cycle be very short or unusually long, you should speak to your gynaecologist in order to exclude any possible disorders.

It is always advisable to go to your own doctor from time to time for a complete check-up – even more often if, despite every attempt, you do not fall pregnant. Sometimes there are medical reasons which can be easily treated. Best of all, take your partner with you to the practice. Ideally, your doctor will give you both a blood test. This can establish if your hormone level is balanced or, for example, if too much heavy metal exists in your body and your fertility is reduced.

What you need above all to become pregnant is lots and lots of time and fun with your partner. And if it is not an immediate success:  don’t let it worry you! Sensual, romantic time alone together is proven to be much more productive than “scheduled sex”, which puts you both under pressure. Almost 75 per cent of all couples have to wait just under one year for the reward of a pregnancy. After a further year it rises to 90 per cent.*So your chances of a baby belly are good.

* Source: Qualimedic.com AG