How To Get Pregnant with Twins

If you are in a hurry to have a big family and you’ve always dreamed of having twins or if you are running out of time to start a family then you probably would like to know how to get pregnant with twins.

Trying for twins can be a lot of fun, but of course even if you try all of the tips on this page there is still only a slight increased chance that you’ll have two babies.  Even couples who have the twin gene somewhere in their family (or are a twin themselves) still have no guarantees that they’ll get them.

But if you would like to give it a go then here are some tips that will help you to improve your chances of getting pregnant with twins.

Eat Yams
In Nigeria there is a tribe where their diet consists mostly of yams.  They also have the highest incidence of twins than anywhere else in the world.  The theory is that yams contain a potent chemical which increases fertility (yams are also recommended for women who are struggling to conceive).

Wait until you are Older
As the mother get’s older there is a higher likelihood that she’ll release more than one egg at a time resulting in twins.  The statistics say that a women in her late 30’s has nearly double the chance of having twins than someone in her early twenties.

Use Fertility Drugs
It is well known that certain fertility drugs that stimulate ovulation such as Clomid increases your chances of twins or multiples.  This is because it can cause the ovaries to release multiple eggs at once.  However Clomid is only prescribed to women who are having trouble conceiving so you won’t be able to get any from your doctor if you have perfect fertility.

Go Dairy Free
While not recommended for your long term health, women who are depleted in calcium have a higher incidence of twins than those with great diets.  The reason is thought to be that the lack of calcium causes a fertilised egg to split more easily than in a women who is healthy.  If you do find out that you are pregnant though make sure you increase your calcium levels again as it is needed by your baby.

So there you go.  Slightly controversial, but still interesting tips none the less.  And remember that knowing how to get pregnant with twins, and actually falling pregnant with them is still no guarantee.

Tips on Getting Pregnant

Before I fell pregnant with my second child (after a two year struggle), many of my highly fertile and well meaning friends would offer me tips on getting pregnant. The one I heard most often was ‘Just Relax, It’ll Happen’. Don’t you just want to smack people in the head when they tell you that? I know I did.


But over the years I did pick up quite a few good tips that have helped women like you and me to increase their fertility and improve their odds of conceiving.

In this blog post I’ll go over some of the easy and simple things that you can do right now to improve your chances of getting pregnant faster.

See Your Doctor

If you haven’t gotten pregnant naturally within six months of trying then this really should be your next step when you are trying to conceive because you want to be sure that you have no reasons why you couldn’t fall pregnant such as blocked tubes, a hormone imbalance, or a condition such as PCOS or Endometriosis.

And that goes for your partner as well. In fact it’s much easier for your guy to get his sperm checked that it is for you to undergo blood tests for your hormones and a laparoscopy to check your internal reproductive system.

Get Healthy

That means exercising and eating a good healthy balanced diet. To ensure optimum fertility you need to be healthy both inside and out. If you are overweight (even by a small amount) in can significantly impair your chances of conceiving.

You also want to ensure that you are getting all your essential vitamins and minerals so that your hormones will be running efficiently. If they get even slightly out of whack it can harm your chances of having a baby.
Also certain unhealthy habits such as smoking, drinking and high amounts of caffeine have been proven to reduce your odds dramatically of conceiving.

Take supplements

There are many good supplements on the market that can improve your fertility.

Folic Acid (Folate) – Not only is this vital for all women trying to conceive to help reduce the risk of birth defects including spina bifida, in can also helps your reproductive system stay healthy.

Evening Primrose Oil (EPO) – Increase the amount of fertile cervical mucus you produce which the sperm need to swim through to reach the egg

Vitamin B6 – Well known for balancing your hormones and improving fertility for many women.

Vitex (Angus Castus) – Also know for balancing hormones and improving fertility.

How to Conceive Twins

Is there really a way to increase your chances of having more than one baby? While there are no guarantees that trying for twins will result in success, there are a few factors that will increase your odds of how to conceive twins.


According to published studies and reports you can improve your chances for conceiving twins if you fall into one of the following categories.

Age
You have a much higher chance of getting two babies at once if you are over the age of 30 when you fall pregnant. Women in their 30’s have a 5% or more chance of conceiving twins than a women in her twenties.

Race
It has been shown that Caucasian and African American women have a much higher chance of having twins than Hispanic or Asian women.

Previous Pregnancies
If you already have children, then the likelihood of having a multiple birth in your second or subsequent pregnancy is higher by around 3%.

Family History
Twins do run in the family, so if there is a history of twins on the maternal side (your mother’s family) then you have a higher chance of having them too.

Foods
Many women swear that eating yams will also help improve your odds since the main Nigerian diet consists of yams and they tend to have the highest rate of conceiving twins than other parts of the world.

Fertility Drugs
Fertility drugs which stimulate ovulation (such as Clomid) often result in more than one egg being released at a time producing twins. Usually these twins are non-identical since they have come from two different eggs.

In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF)
IVF has the highest success rate for conceiving twins, increasing your odds by a whopping 25%. Of course as we all know with stories such as OctoMom and Kate Plus 8, IVF and IUI procedures also carry the risk of triplets or more as well.

While all of the methods outlined in this blog post will increase your chances of how to conceive twins, there are still no guarantee’s, but as we say here on the getting pregnant blog – have fun trying!

Conceiving a Girl Diet

While I’m not convinced that food alone can determine whether you will have a girl or boy baby or not, there is some evidence that it can indeed play a role in the chance of you conceiving a girl. Diet along with intercourse timing and different positions can help boost the odds in your favour of buying pink for the nursery.

Let’s talk a little about the science behind diet first. We all have heard that you are what you eat, and that certain foods can have different effects in the body. When it comes to conceiving a girl, the optimum environment for the female sperm to thrive in is acidic vaginal levels.

Therefore you would want to include such foods in the diet that increase the acidity of your vagina as well as the proper nutrients to ensure that you have a balanced diet full of the essential nutrients needed for both your personal health and your reproductive health.

According to a study by Oxford University the following findings regarding diet can increase your chances of conceiving a girl.

• High calorie diets are were more likely to product boys so if you are aiming for a girl – try and still to your daily limit for your weight and age.
• Breakfast eaters usually had boys, and those that skipped breakfast more often had girls.
• Eating cereal increased your odds of a boy while reducing the amount of cereals you ate to no more than 2 or 3 bowls a week favoured your chances of getting a girl.

So which foods should you diet on the Conceiving a Girl Diet?

• For breakfast, choose fruit smoothies, yoghurt, fruit and/or nuts.
• For other meals lean towards, fish, cheese, eggs, bread, fruits, vegetables (particular green leafy vege’s) and nuts.
• For drinks, try high acidic juices such as cranberry, orange or grapefruit juice.
• Avoid high calorie and sugary foods if possible.

It has been said that the diet for getting pregnant with a girl baby is far more healthy that that for conceiving a boy.

While following this diet, it is important that you take a supplement and eat a balanced diet to ensure optimum fertility.

Does Age Play A Role in Trying To Get Pregnant?

With more and more couples putting off having a family until later in life, fertility for woman starting trying to conceive over the age of 35 has become a big issue.


But can age really affect fertility that much, and is it still possible to get pregnant naturally when you are older?
While studies do show a decreasing fertility in both men and women due to hormone fluctuations, the biggest factor in older couples trying to conceive is the rate of miscarriage which increases slowly after the age of 30 and at around 42 years of age is a factor in about half of all pregnancies.

There is also an increased risk factor for birth defects, especially Down syndrome in babies born to woman over the age of 35.

But having said all that, if your biological clock is ticking away and you are ready to start a family then there are things that you can do to help improve your fertility and have that baby you’ve been dreaming about.

If you are over 35 and have been trying to conceive a child for over six months without any luck then you may need to visit your doctor to rule out any physical reasons for your inability to get pregnant. He may perform a laparoscopy to view your reproductive organs to make sure that everything is ok, as well as taking some tests to see your hormone levels.

If you are not ovulating correctly, or strongly enough, he may decide to prescribe fertility drugs such as Clomid to help improve your fertility.

Other things that you can do to help your fertility is to remain stress free (yes I know that’s easier said than done when you are trying to get pregnant), exercise regularly, keep your weight within a healthy weight range and remain as healthy as you can.

They when you do fall pregnant, have the necessary checks to ensure that your baby is healthy too.

Basal Body Temperature (BBT) 101

Don’t know how to chart your BBT temperature or need a refresher course in what exactly Basal Body Temperature means? Then this article will go over some of the basics you need to know when charting your cycle and understanding the temperature changes that your body goes through.


Why measure your BBT?

If you have spent any time at all trying to conceive then you know that you need to know your exact ovulation day to increase your chances of getting pregnant each month, and so measuring your basal body temperature will help to accurately pinpoint your ovulation day (even though you usually only can confirm it after you have already ovulated).

Can BBT charting help you get pregnant?

Yes and No. Charting your temperature is useful for understanding your cycle better and also for determining your ovulation day, but since it can only tell you after ovulation has already occurred it should be used in conjunction with other methods of determining your approaching ovulation such as cervical mucus changes or prediction tests such as OPK’s and saliva monitors.

How and when do you take your BBT?

You need to use a special Basal Body Thermometer because they are more accurate (they measure to a higher level) than regular thermometer’s. Every day at the same time each morning , before you get out of bed and as long as you’ve had at least 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep, you need to take your temperature orally and then record that day’s temperature. You can then enter the temp onto your online chart or paper chart.

What temperature changes are normal?

Generally you have a lower temperature in the first half of your cycle (your follicular phase) because of the presence of estrogen. Once progesterone is released in the second half of your cycle (the luteal phase) you’ll notice that your BBT will be slightly higher (around 0.4 to 0.6 degrees) until your next period arrives (or you are pregant).

That change in temperature confirms that ovulation has taken place (the last day of lower temperatures).

How to Get Pregnant – Maximize Your Fertility

Getting Pregnant can be easy for some people and a struggle for others, and medicine is still not giving us the clear answers as to why that is the case, but whether you will be trying for the first time, or have been trying to conceive for months (or even years) there are many things that you can do right now to maximize your fertility and know how to get pregnant faster and easier, so read on.

What to do before you conceive

The first thing you need to do if you want to know how to fall pregnant is get yourself as healthy as you can. Once you do fall pregnant, you will have a much easier time if you have a healthy body and so it pays to start now. It’s proven that women who eat healthy foods and exercise regularly have a much easier time conceiving than those who don’t. Yes I know, I’ve heard all those stories of women who are overweight, smoke, take drugs or eat junk food too and still fall pregnant, but we are not talking about them, we are talking about YOU, and what YOU can do to get pregnant.

Check your multivitamin to make sure that you are getting enough folic acid. This B group vitamin is essential for preventing birth defects like spina bifida and you should be taking it well before you conceive for maximum benefits. As a bonus it will give you a slight boost in energy which is important when you want to fall pregnant.
There are other fertility supplements that you can take to help improve your chances of getting pregnant as well.

Also take up some form of mild regular exercise, whether that’s walking, yoga or a leisurely bike ride.
Regular exercise has many benefits to fertility including balancing hormones, reducing stress and improving circulation, all which will help you get pregnant faster.

What he can do

Next make sure that your partner has healthy sperm. He can easily get that tested by visiting a sperm bank or even his local GP. Because this test is so easy to do (especially compared to the fertility tests that women have to go through) it’s worth doing upfront to rule out any issues that may cause problems down the track.
You should also try and convince your partner to wear boxer shorts and avoid hot showers or baths, as this can make his sperm much stronger and this means they’ll be able to live longer and have a better chance of fertilizing your egg.

You next steps is finding out when you ovulate so that you can time lovemaking appropriately. A woman is fertile for around six days of her cycle, which includes the five days prior to ovulation and the day of ovulation itself.

There are many ways of determining your ovulation day from charting your BBT, to keeping track of your cervical mucus, to using ovulation predictor kits or saliva monitors. Each method is different and can also be used in conjunction with each other to really pinpoint your most fertile phase.

Pinpointing ovulation really is the main factor in knowing how to fall pregnant but it doesn’t have to be stressful. If you have a regular cycle and want to avoid obsessing over every temperature rise or dip then you could do what many women do and have intercourse every second day between days 10 and 18 of your cycle which should make sure that you optimize your fertile period.

What if you are still not pregnant after 6 months?

If you still haven’t gotten pregnant after at least six months of trying then the next step is to visit your doctor to see if they can determine the reason. Your doctor will usually order a number of tests including hormone tests and perhaps even a laparoscopy to check for any structural issues.

It could be something as simple as balancing your hormones or prescribing a fertility drug like Clomid to help you conceive or you might need further help such as IUI or even IVF to have a baby. IVF methods (while expensive) are becoming very efficient at helping couples have a baby that are unable to do so naturally and shouldn’t be ruled out.

There are many other ideas and tips on this blog about how to get pregnant so I hope you have a look around and find something that brings you closer to your dream of having a baby.