Hello and welcome to
So You Want To Have A Baby.
I’m Jenifer Karai and I’ll be your host
as we run through everything you need to know
for a happy and successful pregnancy.
In the previous episode
we spoke about the first steps to motherhood and
all the things you need to have in place
to be emotionally prepared for a stress free pregnancy.
If you’ve missed it, here's your chance to catch up
You can find the video linked in the comments below.
Today we’re going understand
the science behind the monthly cycle and ovulation, and
why it’s so critical
to grasp the importance of knowing
when you’re ovulating to maximise
your chances of getting pregnant.
Now, if the timing’s right, and
you’re ready to take that all important next step
what are the most vital things you need to know?
Is it as simple as just having a lot more sex?
Lets turn to our gynaecologist Dr. Bella Palnitkar,
and have her run through the monthly cycle
and why it's so important to understand yours.
The key to the whole process of getting pregnant
is related to your monthly cycle.
It isn’t just about sperm meet egg,
there is a lot more to it than that
and the better you understand your monthly cycle
the better your chances of getting pregnant.
Most women think their period cycle is only
on the 4-5 days that they have their period,
but actually an entire cycle begins
on the first day of your period and ends a day before
your next period begins.
If today is the 1st of April and i get my period,
this is the first day of my period.
I know that I got my last period on the 4th of March.
To calculate your menstrual cycle
count the number of days from the first day of your period
to the first day of your last period
and so the average length of my monthly cycle is 28 days.
But if you’re not sure about your average length
or if your cycle is irregular
take the average of your last three cycles.
Ovulation which is when
a woman’s ovaries release an egg,
happens about two weeks before the next expected period
and lasts for around 24 hours,
but potentially makes you fertile for around 5 days
which is ideally the best time for the couple
to be having sex in order to conceive.
So it’s important to know when you are ovulating.
Well,
sounds like Ovulation is the key to getting pregnant,
but how do we figure out when these magic days occur?
We did some research
and found a few options to consider.
A lot of people are using ovulation apps,
where you feed in the exact dates of your monthly cycle
and the app then calculates the dates you are ovulating,
based on what you’ve entered.
But those aren’t extremely accurate,
because we often get our period late,
or maybe even a few days early, in which case
the dates calculated by the app could be wrong,
and you’re right back where you started.
So we asked Dr. Bella if there's a better way.
If you want to know for sure that you’re ovulating,
you should use an Ovulation Test Kit.
This is an at-home test
which gives you the exact time during your menstrual cycle
where getting pregnant is most likely to happen
because it predicts when an egg release
is about to take place.
It does this by detecting
a rise in luteinizing hormone (LH) in the urine,
so it’s actually responding to your body
and not making any determinations
based on anything else.
This would be the ideal time
to have unprotected sex
if you’re trying to conceive.
You can pick up ovulation kits at your local chemist.
They are the most accurate method of
checking your ovulation cycle.
We use the iKnow Ovulation Kit
because it's a simple urine-based test
which can be done in the comfort of your home
and it detects those 5 days of the month
where a woman’s chances of conceiving are the highest
with a 99% accuracy.
This is how iKnow helps with that baby making magic.
We’ll dive into more details about
the monthly cycle and ovulation in our next video.
I’m Jenifer, thanks for watching
and if you have any questions about any of the things
we discussed in this video
please let us know in the comments below,
we’ll try and answer as many as we can.
We’ll see you next time with Episode 3 of
So You Want To Have A Baby.
Until then thanks for watching and stay Glamrs.
On the next episode of
So You Want to Have a Baby,
we have a quick facts and myths session coming up to
bust all those misconceptions and establish nothing
but the facts!
See you then!