There are two types of getting pregnant calendars: one that deals with the time when a couple is trying to get pregnant and the other covers the time, when a couple await the arrival of a baby.
Trying To Get Pregnant
Couples trying to get pregnant sometimes practice fertility awareness and they use a calendar to record a woman’s most fertile periods during her monthly cycle. Women are most likely to get pregnant if they have sex with their partner during the seven day window before they ovulate. This event usually happens some 12 days after the woman has had her last period. During this time a woman will also be taking her temperature every day and will be monitoring her vaginal secretions. A woman’s vaginal secretions alter during her cycle and the secretion’s consistency and texture changes, making it look a little like raw egg white. She will record the time when the first day of her period starts and will record the last day of her cycle. These measures will help to determine when ovulation is likely to occur.
A woman’s chances of getting pregnant increase, if the couple has sex within a day of ovulation occurring, this means within a day of the woman’s ovaries releasing an egg. Since the egg can live only for between 12 and 24 hours after it’s been released, the man’s sperm must fertilise the egg within that time. Luckily sperm can live up to seven days within a woman’s body, so there is enough time for the sperm to travel up the fallopian tubes to find the egg, when it is released from the woman’s ovary. Studies have shown that using this method puts both couples under a lot of stress which will ultimately have an effect not only on the couple’s chances of getting pregnant, but also on their relationship. Most doctors will advise the couple to forget the getting pregnant calendar and simply have sex as they like, every two or three days throughout the month.
Baby Arrival Calendar
Once a couple has found out they are pregnant, there are lots of things to take care of. Baby will need a room, a cot, baby clothes, nappies, feeding bottles and sterilizers and lots of toys. Mum will need lots of cuddles, antenatal appointments, and large boxes of tissues for her raging hormones and Dad will need nerves of steel. If Dad and Mum didn’t stop smoking and drinking prior to conception of the baby, they must certainly stop now. Their miracle baby – it already managed to survive its parents bad drinking and smoking habits against all the odds – can suffer respiratory problems and even die from cot death syndrome, if smoke is inhaled. Couples trying to conceive should give up smoking and drinking as it is harmful to the child as well as their own health. Smoking has been proven to reduce fertility and drinking affects the quality of a man’s sperm. If either parent has difficulty in giving up smoking and / or drinking, then the calendar should include a visit to their doctor to discuss ways of helping the parents to give up alcohol and cigarettes.
Antenatal classes will be on the calendar, too, together with days for hospital check-ups, scans and your getting pregnant and baby arrival calendar will sure find a space for an appointment with a nutritionist, too. Eating a healthy diet before, during and after pregnancy is important for both parents. Apart from getting Mum and Dad into a better shape to cope with baby’s demands, when it arrives, it also helps baby to grow and pick up the rich nutrients from Mum’s diet.
Baby Arrival
Your getting pregnant calendar will also have included several dummy runs to the clinic, where you are going to have your baby, unless you have opted for a home birth. Mum’s midwife will have made sure that everyone knows what they are supposed to be doing and what should be in place when baby finally arrives. After the worry and stress over getting pregnant in the first place, the immediate days after baby’s arrival can almost come as an anti-climax. Dads can feel lonely and left out – all eyes are on Mum and Baby. Mum’s only got eyes for her child.
It’s important for new parents to remember they are still a couple and they both need reassurance in this time of adjustment and change. Dads can get rather jealous of their babies when Mums are too possessive and appear indifferent towards their husbands. Dads should remember that their partner needs them now more than ever. Family, friends and neighbours will wish to come and see Baby – they will have pencilled in their visits the moment that getting pregnant calendar appeared on the wall.