Clear Blue Fertility Monitor Secrets

Marina Nicholas asked:


The New Year is a popular time for couples to think about having a baby. The hangover of the Christmas festivities have passed and New Year resolutions for a healthy and happy future are being made. Whether you have been trying for a baby for several months or just started thinking about having a baby, these top tips will help get you in the right frame of mind, optimise your health and improve your chance of success.


1. Give up toxic habits

This is perhaps the most obvious yet most difficult tip to implement. Ideally you are looking to reduce or give up caffeine, smoking and alcohol and increase your energy levels through exercise like yoga, swimming and aerobics. There is an abundance of evidence to demonstrate the benefits of making these changes.
Set a date for you and your partner to give them up. You will both need to be fully committed and supportive of each other as you embark on cutting out the toxins. Choose a week to start when your social diary is quiet and work pressures are at a minimum - this will make it easier to complete the transition.

2. Vitamin supplementation

Vitamin supplementation is an easy and effective way to maximise you chance of getting pregnant. There are many pre-conception vitamin tablets on the market for men and women. Don't just rely on taking folic acid. Ideally women should choose supplements that contain calcium, iron, Vitamin E and Vitamin K. The supplements for men should include zinc, Vitamin C and arginine. In today's stressful society our bodies are constantly challenged to keep up with all the essential vitamins it needs for its everyday functions - reproductive organs need them too!


3. Medical check

Most couples forget about the current state of their internal reproductive organs before trying to conceive. It is probably one of the most important steps of the pregnancy plan. Make an appointment to visit your Doctor for both you and your partner to be screened for sexually transmitted diseases. You will be amazed how many couples do not conceive straight away due to an underlying infection that they did not know about. Get yourself tested before you start trying so you do not end up wasting valuable time. Many of the infections are symptomless and can be silently causing damage to your reproductive organs. The most common are chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis. If either of you tests positive for an infection, a course of antibiotics is sufficient to remove the harmful bacteria and get you back on track to optimising your health for conception. It may take up to 2 weeks to get the results of the test back from your Doctor.


4. Know your timing

Are you having sex at the wrong time? Can you accurately pinpoint when you are ovulating? Do you know the signs to look for? Textbook women have a 28-day menstrual cycle and may ovulate between days 14 -16 of the month. However, many women have cycles either shorter or longer and therefore knowing your cycle and timing is crucial to your success. A number of changes take place to signal ovulation is about to happen or has happened. For the purposes of maximising your chances of conception, focus your efforts on detecting when ovulation is about to happen.
The most common sign is a change in the cervical mucus as the menstrual cycle progresses. It is a quick, easy and reliable indication of ovulation. At the beginning of the cycle, oestrogen levels are low and little mucus is present. The dryness means you are relatively infertile at this stage. Mucus begins to increase to a white, milky or cloudy consistency suggesting the fertile period is approaching. Just before ovulation, the mucus changes to become slippery, stretchy and clear - like raw egg white. This is the most fertile period of your cycle. The slippery mucus facilitates the movement of sperm towards an egg in the uterus. After ovulation, the mucus changes consistency again to a thicker, cloudier, acidic mucus. Typically four days after the last egg white mucus, the infertile phase begins.
If you are unsure, there are several ovulation kits available from pharmacies to help pinpoint your most fertile time. After a few months you will recognise the signs.


5. Know when to seek help

Knowing when to seek professional help is my last top tip. If you are under 35 years old and have actively been trying for a baby for 12 months, you should visit your Doctor to complete fertility tests on your and your partner. If you are over 35 years old and have been trying for 3 - 6 months, make an appointment with your Doctor. There is a balance between giving your body sufficient the right amount of time to conceive and seeking help after a certain period of time.

Planning for a pregnancy is an exciting time for a couple. The air is full of expectation and anticipation about your future family. Embark on the journey together, make changes that will maximise your chances of conception and above all, have fun!


Now, when you're ready to see the results of your fun....check out

David Beart asked:


There's one question that seems even more pressing than Hamlet's philosophical “to be or not to be?” At least for expecting moms and dads, that is. It is: “will it be a boy or a girl?” In today's day and age, the answer to that question is not quite as difficult to answer as Hamlet's. That doesn't mean it's all that easy either.

With a trip to the doctor's office, a soon-to-be-mom can find out the sex of her baby via an ultrasound, or through other means like chorionic villus sampling and amniocentisis. Chorionic villus is a diagnostic test that can cause problems in pregnancy and should only be administered if absolutely necessary (it is used to determine if the baby is likely to have have genetic abnormalities). Amniocentisis is another diagnostic test with slight risks. Ultrasounds are more popular, as they can be performed at any stage of pregnancy and unless there is routine exposure of the baby to an ultrasound, it is likely a safe method. However, an ultrasound is not meant to only help determine a baby's sex and in fact, it is not always accurate (especially during the early stages of pregnancy).

Thus, there are a slew of ways that have been devised to figure out whether an unborn baby will be a boy or a girl – some may have logical backing, but most – if not all – are completely baseless. But probably the most interesting methods of determining a baby's sex stem from old wives tales. So what are these tales and which ones have a grain or two of truth to them?

Well, the only real truth we know about old wives tales is that they are just that – rumors that have passed from generation to generation. Thankfully, they are innocuous rumors, unless of course one takes them too seriously and starts picking out clothes and furniture for a boy baby, only to greet a little girl on the operating table. Hopefully, the new parents kept those receipts. Another truth we know about old wives tales is that their origin is sketchy – who thought up each tales is pretty much unknown. But they sure are fun.

So, whether or not you're having fun playing the guessing game about your own baby or are just plain curious, here is a list of old wives tales to think about.

Do you sleep on your left or right side at night? If you prefer your right, then you just might be having a boy! If you sleep on your left, a girl could be on the way. Even the dryness or softness of your skin can help you predict your baby's sex – if you have soft hands, expect a girl; dry hands, a boy. Moreover, many pregnant woman crave interesting foods, but supposedly the specific kinds of food you crave can indicate what sex your baby is. If you constantly want salty foods, like french fries, you're due for a boy, whereas if you have a taste for sweets, like chocolate pie, prepare for a girl. And the old wives tales hardly stop there. Do you feel clumsy or elegant as a pregnant woman? If you're dropping your keys and stumbling over pairs of shoes, you might have a baby boy on the way, but if you feel graceful on foot, it's probably a baby girl. Even the size of your breasts can be a factor. It's common to have asymmetrical breasts, so by examining which breast is larger, you can also put the clues together to your baby's sex. If a pregnant woman's left breast is bigger, it's a girl; if the right breast is, it's a boy.

Furthermore, according to these recycled wives tales, morning sickness is not a symptom of every pregnancy, but only of those pregnancies of women who are carrying a girl. In other words, nausea means you better decorate the nursery pink. In fact, there are a bunch of signs you can look out for if you're having a girl. While soft hands mean you're having a girl, so do pesky breakouts on your skin.

And if you're craving citrus fruits, or become rather plump in your face, or experience several emotions throughout the day, then you are having a girl.

You can also guess your baby's gender by the way they sit in your uterus. You will feel heaviness in the lower area, if it's a boy, and if you feel pressure higher up, if it's a girl. As well, do you feel the baby in your front or in the middle? Boys, apparently, tend to take a seat up front, while girls prefer to situate themselves all around the middle.

As fascinating and fun as these tales are, they are just that – tales. They have no scientific substance to them whatsoever and should only be used for entertainment purposes! Especially considering that a lot of these tales (and these are just a handful of them) seem to be born of cultural stereotypes of boys and girls, not any clear logic, they should be approached with a healthy dose of skepticism.

But considering how ultrasounds aren't 100% accurate, why not play the guessing game? Ideally, it's best to wait far into the pregnancy to get an ultrasound or simply expect for the unexpected, but in the meantime, ask yourself – do you want a sweet cookie or some salty fried chicken?