The Best Time to Conceive to Get Pregnant

If you are trying to achieve a pregnancy then you know that there are only a few days per month that you are able to conceive properly that results in getting pregnant, and those days are when you ovulate (when your body releases the egg ready to be fertilized).

However determining when you ovulate is not as simple as having intercourse around Day 14 – the supposed magical day that all women are supposed to ovulate – because every woman is different and Day 14 is just an average day. You might ovulate later or earlier.

And it isn’t just ovulation that you need to know to get pregnant; you also have to have lots of fertile egg white cervical fluid, be healthy and not stressed, and avoid certain foods such as caffeine and peas (yes ordinary green peas have been known to have contraceptive qualities) and of course your partner needs to have lots of healthy sperm too.

With all that we have to do to conceive a baby – is it any wonder that so many of us have trouble getting pregnant?

For the rest of this article, I’m going to assume that you are in perfect health and your partner’s sperm count is fine, and talk about how to determine the best time to conceive to result in a pregnancy.
There are many ways to determine when you ovulate but the most common ways are: charting your basal body temperature, using ovulation predictor kits, using a saliva fertility monitor like Maybe Baby, feeling for the position and softness of your cervix, or keeping track of when you produce fertile egg white cervical mucus (ewcm).

Once you have determined your ovulation day, you should aim to have intercourse every day starting five days before right up to the day after you ovulation day. This will give you the best chances of catching the egg so that you can conceive and fall pregnant.

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Does Taking Cranberry Improve Your Chance Of Conceiving?

There have been some rumors on one of the fertility message boards that I read that taking cranberry juice or cranberry tablets will improve your chances of conceiving a baby. Now I knew that cranberry can help if you have a UTI infection, but can it help you to get pregnant?

From the research that I’ve found, taking cranberry does not help pregnancy per se, but it can influence the gender of your child – which is great news if you are trying for a girl baby.

What it does is make the cervical mucus (cm) more acidic and therefore more hostile to sperm. But because the female sperm are stronger, they are more likely to be able to survive and reach the egg.

Cranberry can also interfere with the amount of cervical mucus that you produce, often drying up your CM, again making it harder for the male sperm to navigate through since sperm need a good amount of egg white cervical mucus (ewcm) to swim through to reach the fallopian tubes.

So who should take cranberry?
If you are trying for a girl and you have no issue with the amount of fertile ewcm that you produce then by all means take cranberry juice or tablets (either is fine). At the very least you’ll reduce your chances of contracting a UTI! Lol

If you are trying simply to fall pregnant, then it’s probably best to avoid the cranberry because it can dry up your mucus making it more difficult to conceive if you are already having problems in that area.

If you currently have a UTI and are taking cranberry tablets or drinking cranberry juice to try and clear it up, but also are trying to conceive then make sure you drink lots of water as well to make sure it doesn’t interfere with the amount of ewcm that you produce.

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How to Conceive a Baby Girl

Trying to choose the sex of your baby may seem controversial to some, but to other’s the longing for a child of a certain gender is enough to want to try many different methods to help conceive a girl or boy. While this article will focus specifically on how to conceive a girl using natural techniques that you can try at home, let’s first look at the history behind the techniques:


Throughout history many couples have used many methods, some quite bizarre, to try and choose the sex of their child. From holding apples under the armpit to eating the genitals of a rabbit – fortunately these days we know more about science and don’t have to rely on folklore.

Probably the most well known method of gender selection was introduced by Dr Landrum Shettles MD PhD in the 1970’s whose Shettles method is now widely known by most women wanting a baby.

His theory is based around that the sperm carrying the X chromosome (female sperm) are larger, heavier and slower than the sperm carrying the Y chromosome (male sperm) which are faster, but less robust and somewhat weak.

Ovulation is then used as timing as to when to have intercourse so the sperm of your preference is able to fertilize the egg first.

The medical profession itself is still at odds as to whether the techniques work or not, and even ardent Shettles supporters agree that the method has its flaws and is not a guaranteed way to conceiving a girl or boy baby depending on your choice.

In fact, Dr Shettles himself claims that it is only around 85% effective for getting a boy baby and 77% effective for a girl if the rules are followed correctly.

Since this article will focus on the methods for conceiving a girl, we will look at those techniques in more detail.

The Shettles Method for conceiving a girl:
Using the Shettles Method you should have sex as far away as ovulation as possible while still in the timeframe that you are able to conceive. This is because the male sperm theoretically will have died off by the time the egg is released leaving on female sperm to fertilize the egg resulting in a girl baby.

This technique is actually harder to try and conceive a girl than it is for a boy as timing can be tricky for most women since the method requires knowing the exact day that you ovulate.

The only true way to know if you have ovulated is via ultrasound and while that is not practicable for most women other methods such as ovulation predictor kits (OPK’s), saliva monitors and body basal temperature charting (BBT) are usually used.

These of course are not foolproof however, and some skill is required to pinpoint the exact ovulation date (which is usually only determined after the fact, not before).

The most effective way to find your ovulation date is to observe signs and chart your cycles for three or four months so that you can more accurately determine when you usual day for ovulation is. Don’t immediately assume that it’s on Day 14 – as it’s a myth that all women ovulate on this day.

The Shettles Method also advocates using the missionary position and for the mother to avoid orgasm for best results.

To Try the Shettles Method:

• Have intercourse everyday starting from the first day you finish menstruating to 3 days before your expected ovulation day.
• Use the missionary or other shallow penetration position.
• The woman should avoid orgasm
• If possible keep the pH levels of your vagina as acidic as possible (drink cranberry juice, take Vitamin C supplements).

Other Sex Selection Methods.
The Shettles Method isn’t the only known gender selection method that people use today, both the Whelan Method and the O+12 method are also popular when it comes to trying to conceive a girl.

The Whelan Method also relies on timing, however its studies recommends waiting until you see a temperature rise after ovulation to have sex for a baby girl. Dr Whelan says that this is the optimum time to conceive a child of the female sex (which is the complete opposite to Shettles).

The O+12 method also supports the Whelan method in that you should have sex approximately 12 hours after you ovulate to conceive a girl. This method was developed by a mother in New Zealand who after trying the Shettles method unsuccessfully for a girl after six pregnancies (she had boys each time) decided to find out more after a friend of hers had a girl baby by breaking the Shettles rules.

After further research she found that waiting until between 8 and 20 hours after ovulation produced a girl 90% of the time, and using this method subsequently fell pregnant with a girl in her seventh pregnancy.
Of course this method is very difficult to achieve properly since you must know the precise moment that your body ovulates – which is very hard to determine without an ultrasound.

To try the Whelan or O+12 method

• Keep track of your ovulation by using Ovulation Predictor Kit’s, saliva monitors or charting your body basal temperature.
• As soon as you have confirmation that you ovulated have intercourse within 8 to 20 hours.

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