Episode 01

intimacy during pregnancy, (breast) feeding & lactation consultant

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I want to get pregnant quickly

You’re out: you want to get pregnant! Probably as smoothly and as healthy as possible. Read what you can do and more interesting facts for a good start, your cycle, LH peak and your fertility.

In brief

The placement of an IUD can be experienced as unpleasant or painful.
Of all couples who try to conceive, 80-90% of them succeed within a year.
The chance of pregnancy is greatest if you have sex every 2 or 3 days in the six days before ovulation (ovulation is 2 weeks before the start of the next period).
Take 400 mg of folic acid daily from the desire to become pregnant until 10 weeks of pregnancy.

Your cycle and your fertility

To become pregnant, an egg must be fertilized by a sperm. In the woman, an egg cell is released from one of the ovaries, this happens (almost) every month, the so-called ovulation. Ovulation occurs 14 days before menstruation. When you menstruate regularly, the moment of ovulation can be predicted fairly accurately. If your menstrual cycle is irregular, it is more difficult to predict.

You will notice changes in your body around your ovulation

More vaginal discharge, which is thicker and more mucous than you are used to. This makes it easier for the sperm cells to reach the egg cells that have passed through the fallopian tube to the uterus.
Your libido often rises (conveniently!).
Some women feel ovulation in the lower part of their abdomen,
just above the groin.
The LH peak in your urine rises around ovulation.
If you keep track of when you menstruate for a few months, what your temperature is and what your vaginal mucus looks like, you will gain a lot of insight into your own menstrual cycle and this will increase the chance of pregnancy.

Calculate when your ovulation is with an ovulation calculator. Or use ovulation tests that measure the LH peak in your urine: the LH hormone is elevated around ovulation.

The chance of ovulation can decrease, for example due to: stress, very intensive sports or heavy physical work, losing weight, low body weight, overweight or the transition (the start of the menopause).

Having sex in the fertile period

To get pregnant, it is usually enough to have sex every two or three days. More often is allowed, but is not necessary. The sperm cells remain alive in the uterus for a few days. Do you know when you ovulate: most pregnancies occur after having sex in the six days before ovulation.

Preparing for your pregnancy: live healthy

Fortunately, nature ensures that almost every child is born healthy. However, there are also things you can do to increase the chance of a healthy baby and a healthy pregnancy. This already starts during pregnancy. In addition, the first weeks of pregnancy are very important for the development of a child. Most women don’t know they are pregnant until after those first few weeks.

folic acid

The chance that a child will be born with spina bifida is small. You can further reduce this chance if you take folic acid. 400mg of folic acid per day promotes the closing of the central nervous system around the 8th week of pregnancy. Do not stop taking folic acid until after 10 weeks of pregnancy.

Healthy weight

With a healthy weight you have the best chance of pregnancy and less chance of complications during pregnancy and childbirth. We define an optimal weight as a BMI between 20 and 25. Calculate your BMI here.

See if you can get to a healthy weight with healthy food. If this does not work, make an appointment with the dietician, who can often help you quickly and well. We often work together with Dieticians from Steenstra and de Vries at our location in West.

Smoking

Stop smoking well before you become pregnant. Smoking reduces fertility. It increases the risk of fetal death, premature birth and low birth weight. Smoking and passive smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of cot death. Do you want help to quit smoking: smoking and pregnancy

Alcohol

Consuming alcohol can affect your fertility and has an effect on the embryo in the first weeks of pregnancy. Drinking alcohol by the partner also affects his fertility. Want to know the hat and the edge: alcohol and pregnancy.

Medication

If you wish to become pregnant, only take medication after consulting a doctor. This also applies to your partner. It is sometimes wise to stop taking medication in the run-up to pregnancy, to switch to another medication or to adjust the dosage of your medication. You can only use paracetamol during a pregnancy wish and during your pregnancy without consultation.

Work

There may be circumstances at work that affect your fertility, or affect early pregnancy. Think of risks such as: contact with hazardous substances such as solvents or pesticides, irregular working hours (such as shift work and night shift), physically demanding work, unhealthy stress, an environment with noise / overpressure / body vibrations / extreme heat or cold, contact with radiation. Discuss the consequences of this for a pregnancy with your employer or an occupational health and safety doctor. Together you can look at adjusting your activities and/or working hours. Do you work with small children and have you never had chickenpox: consider getting vaccinated before pregnancy. Click here for more info.

Drugs

Drugs negatively affect your fertility and can cause birth defects when used around conception.

When to contact if you want to become pregnant?

It may be that making love is not going well. Then discuss this with your partner or contact your doctor or us to talk about it. Experience shows that this helps.
If you have a chronic illness such as diabetes, high blood pressure, thyroid diseases, epilepsy, thrombosis, asthma, depression and anxiety disorders, this deserves extra attention even before pregnancy.
If there is a hereditary disease in your immediate family (or that of your partner), such as cystic fibrosis, muscle diseases, Down’s syndrome or spina bifida.
When you are related to your partner, the chance that a hereditary disorder will be expressed is greater.
If it is unclear whether there is an ovulation (for example, because you have not menstruated for six months);
If you have been trying to conceive for a year.

Child wish consultation

When getting pregnant doesn’t work out, you find it difficult to get a grip on your cycle or personally
advice even before the pregnancy: make an appointment with us or a midwife in the area for a consultation on the desire to have children.
The midwife will ask you to fill in the pregnancy guide so that she can properly prepare for your interview.
This is how you get in touch with us.

Did you get pregnant? Read more in our 9 month plan about:

The advantages of the Dutch obstetric system.
Which obstetrician do you choose and how will you be guided?
Healthy lifestyle: nutrition & exercise

And further:
For the partners

The same applies to partners: stopping smoking, drugs and alcohol increases your fertility
Do you take medicines: ask your doctor or pharmacist whether the medicines can affect your fertility

Lees Tips

In the growing guide and op strakszwangerworden.nl contains tips and advice on how to get pregnant as healthy as possible.

To do