AUTHOR: Sara TITLE: And we thought we knew it all! DATE: 1/28/2005 04:49:00 PM ----- BODY:

A co-worker was kind enough to give me a page from the February 2005 copy of Redbook. Now, not that Redbook is the most defining of magazines or medically significant, even, but I thought it was somewhat interesting. I will make it easy on you and sum up the article in a lovely "Top 10" list. The Top 10 Things You Didn't Know About Getting Pregnant: (*I, myself, will be anxiously awaiting the Top 10 for things we didn't know about STAYING pregnant. I am still searching . . . . ) 10. It turns out, according to the University of Utah School of Medicine that OPKs are only accurate 68-84% of the time in predicting ovulation. 9. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences discovered that couples who have sex one to two days BEFORE ovulation almost double their odds of conceiving, compared with those who have sex the day of ovulation. 8. Sperm, according to that same study, can live inside a woman's body for 5 days. (Am I the only person who is a little freaked out by that??) 7. Don't smoke or drink and tell your partner not to also! Cigarettes contain agents that damage sperm AND eggs. People that drink 2 or more bottles of vino a week or 1/2 a bottle of liquor are 59% more likely to end up needing fertility treatments to conceive. 6. The optimal BMI (Body mass index) for getting pregnant is 18.5 to 24.9. 5. "Don't worry about the pillow." In other words, the propping up we all have done to our pelvic regions to "get those swimmers swimming in the right direction" is pointless, according to this. Within 15-60 seconds of ejaculation, millions are already zipping up the reproductive tract. 4. Telling your husband "not to play" or "waste" the troops on events that don't involve you does not waste the sperm. 3. Frequent ejaculations don't dilute or weaken sperm. In the New England Journal of Medicine Study, doing the hibbity dibbity everyday during your fertile period means your chances of conceiving are 37%. (huh??) When you do the HB every other day, it goes down to 33%. 2. Wearing tight underwear does not heat up the testicles enough to affect fertility. 1. *Harvard Medical School said that drinking one cup of coffee a day DOES NOT delay conception, as previously thought. *This is my personal favorite because Starbucks has been calling my name for days now. I just cannot bring myself to do it!

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