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?"

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.

Want to see more?

• Safeguard Your Fertility: 6 Simple Steps
• Too Toxic to Conceive: Is Your Lifestyle to Blame?
• Private Suffering: The Issue of DES Daughters
• Talk about it!