Girls Night #159: How to get Pregnant — Everything you Need to Know When You're Ready to Start Trying
IN THIS PODCAST EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN:
How babies are actually made (a refresher for those of us who haven’t been in health class for a while! 🙋🏼♀️) and what’s happening at each stage of our cycle
How to increase your chances of getting pregnant
How to find the window of time when you’re most likely to get pregnant each month
When and how implantation happens (and when you can start taking pregnancy tests!)
How long it takes for the average couple to get pregnant (and what to do if it’s taking longer than you had hoped)
How long to give yourself before you start thinking, “Okay, something might be wrong here…” and who to talk to if you do think something’s wrong
(You can also listen right here!👇)
(Or watch the interview right here!👇)
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Hey friends! Welcome to Girls Night!
I’m so excited for today’s episode! Today we’re talking about how to get pregnant — everything you need to know when you’re ready to start trying.
I’ve been wanting to do this episode for years now, because this is something my friends and I have been talking about at our real life girls nights for a really long time.
If you’re anything like me, the last time you got a full overview of your reproductive system was also the last time you took a health class. Which again, if you’re anything like me, was in high school, and you were too busy trying not to die of embarrassment to really pay attention to what was going on.
Also, for the longest time, I was mostly focused on how NOT to get pregnant. So when I actually wanted TO get pregnant, I had no idea where to start.
Okay… I knew where to start… but I didn’t know much more than that.
But really, there’s so much that goes into it, and while yes, I have a great doctor, and most of my friends do too, the really important “how to get pregnant” information is something we passed around to each other.
It was my friend Hanna that told me that you can only get pregnant for a short window of time each month. (ESSENTIAL information!) It was Kelsey who told me how long it typically takes to get pregnant, and who talked me through how I might feel if it didn’t happen right away (Which, of course, it didn’t.) My dear friend Ann was my practitioner for a while there, and so she was the one telling me which prenatal vitamin to take and also the one who referred me to our fertility clinic when the time came.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that my friends directly contributed to the lives of my babies — whether through emotional support, encouragement, or sending me the link to an ovulation predictor kit on Amazon. And I love that. That’s exactly how it should be, right? And so that’s why it was so important to me to capture the conversations we have been having over the past few years and to share them with you.
But because I didn’t want to accidentally steer you wrong, I wanted to make sure to bring a professional on the show to talk us through the details. So today’s guest is my new friend, Rebecca Helie.
Becca is a Certified Nurse Midwife and provides full-spectrum women’s health care. In her spare time, she also runs a women’s health account on Instagram where she provides free, evidence-based information all about women’s health! I’ve been following along with Becca for a while now and just love her content and resources! I’m so excited for you to hear from her!
She’s going to bring us back to the basics and explain how our bodies work in a really practical way. She’s also going to walk us through the steps we need to take when we’re ready to start trying to have a baby.
I’m so honored to get to talk about this together.
PIN ME!
LINKS FROM THE SHOW
Steph’s book, The Lipstick Gospel (here’s a paperback copy and here’s a free digital download!)
Steph’s prayer journals, Every Single Moment and The Between Places
Quotes Mentioned:
"The more we know and the more we understand about our body...the better we are able to cope with that information and feelings" - Rebecca
"Within fertility, I felt like a way that I was able to cope was really getting down to the nitty gritty details and understanding how amazing science is and how amazing the body is" - Rebecca
"I recommend all women in general take a daily women's vitamin whether that's a prenatal or a women's vitamin" - Rebecca
"About 80% of couples are going to be successful at achieving pregnancy within the first 6 months." - Rebecca
"Healthy lifestyle habits are always going to have a positive effect on your fertility" - Rebecca
"I recommend 150 minutes of exercise per week for all women of childbearing age, but especially if you're trying to get pregnant. So if you want to divide this evenly, this works out to about thirty minutes five times a week...just find an enjoyable way to move your body and get your blood flowing" - Rebecca
"As far as diet goes, I recommend eating a colorful variety of nutrient-rich foods when trying to conceive and while pregnant" - Rebecca
"There's really no convincing data on stress actually being a cause of infertility" - Rebecca
"It really is amazing that anyone ever gets pregnant...our bodies are just incredible" - Stephanie
"Science and technology have come such a long way...what we know about the human body has expanded exponentially. There is hope" - Rebecca
CONNECT WITH REBECCA
CONNECT WITH STEPHANIE
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