This article gives you all things you always wanted to know about ovulation and pregnancy in a simple language.

There is an African proverb that states that man and woman have intercourse for pleasure, but it is God who gives the child! It may look funny at the outset, but it has a profound message in it.

Biologically, when healthy man has intercourse with his healthy female partner at a favorable period of a month, the woman gets pregnant. But in reality, things are not as simple as that. There is an awesome play of nature, human psyche, mathematics of probability, biology, chemistry and last but not the least — for the spiritually inclined — God’s will, all intricately interlinked in the process of a woman getting pregnant.

Statistics says that when all conditions are conducive, the chance for a woman to get pregnant in a month is about 15 to 25 percent.

For a woman to get pregnant in all probability under the best conditions, let us first consider the basic requisites, timings and the procedure:

Health of the man

The man must have crossed puberty, must have a well developed sex organ that has proper erectile function, must produce enough count of sperms that have mobility in his semen. He should not have any other present or past health problems, both physical and mental, that can potentially affect his manliness or the capacity of healthy sperm production.

Health of the woman

The woman must have attained puberty and she should be under about 35 years of age and must not have reached menopause (the stage when her menstruation stops altogether). Her monthly periods must be regular and her ovaries must be producing eggs systematically. She should not have any other present or past health problems, both physical and mental, that can affect her natural biological functions of becoming a mother.

Ovulation and the menstrual cycle

On an average of 28-day-menstrual-cycle, the following activities take place inside a woman’s body:

• The woman ovulates from one of the two ovaries, (produces an egg or ovum, which is hardly about 0.5 mm in diameter)
• the egg travels through the fallopian tube and reaches the uterus, waits for the arrival of the male sperm for a possible conception for a period of about 24 hours after ovulation
• if the ovum does not come across a sperm, (within about 24 hours), then the it loses its potential to become a fetus. After about 2 weeks, the inner wall of the uterus cleanses itself and the blood thus produced along with the ovum gets discharged as menstrual blood. This discharge takes place over a period of 3 to 4 days.
• The next ovulation takes place approximately after 14 days after the previous period’s beginning

The right timing

Thus in a woman having a normal 28-day menstrual cycle, ovulation takes place approximately at the mid period – about 14 days after the starting day of the previous menstrual discharge.

All these natural biological happenings have there own “tolerance”; Every single happening can have its own advancement or delay by plus or minus two days. Where the menstrual cycle is not approximately 28 days, these happenings have their own rhythm based on the actual menstrual cycle of the specific woman.

Taking averages and probabilities into consideration in a normal menstrual cycle, if a hassle-free intercourse takes place between the 13 the day to 16th day after pervious beginning day menstrual discharge, there is fairly a good possibility for the woman to get pregnant.

In case of women whose menstrual cycle is not the normal one of 28 days, the most probable day of ovulation and fertile days for getting pregnant can be obtained from a Ovulation Calendar.

The intercourse

The physical intercourse has to take place without much of tension in a normal and natural way in the above mentioned conducive period. Ideally, the man and woman should keep their organs clean before intercourse. No contraceptives should be used by the man (i.e. condom) or by the woman (like copper-T or intake of any oral contraceptive pills on the day or a few days before the day of intercourse).

The ejaculation should take place fully inside the vagina; ideally, the woman’s posture must be conventional (i.e. man at top and woman at bottom) such that the cervix receives the discharge without allowing it to flow out of vagina and it is conducive for the sperms to find their way into the uterus though the cervical passage. In order to ensure this, it would be better if the woman keeps lying in that position (facing upwards) for 15 to 20 minutes.

The woman should not wash her vaginal passage immediately after intercourse.

What happens next

Out of the millions and millions of sperms produced in an ejaculation, actually just one sperm is good enough to cause pregnancy. The sperms have a life of about 24 hours normally and the healthier ones swim up through the passage and reach up into the uterus and one such successful sperm joins with the egg and fertilization takes place.

When every element involved in these complex operations works out well, a successful pregnancy takes place.

Symptoms of pregnancy:

Traditionally, the delay in the arrival of monthly periods is the FIRST prominent indicator for suspecting pregnancy. Added to it, the woman can look for the following symptoms:

A General feeling of tiredness, lethargy and irritability

This again can not be taken as a sure-fire sign. So, look for more symptoms.

• A light spotting of blood in the vaginal discharge:
• This may not be a universal phenomenon, but some woman may notice it and it has the potential to confuse the woman as though the period has arrived belatedly. This spotting occurs on account of implantation of the fetus inside the uterus. Thus a delay plus an occasional, non-continuous one-time spotting of blood is an indication of pregnancy.

• Tenderness, swelling and increased sensitivity of the breasts:

• This is one of the tell-tale indications of pregnancy when coupled with delay in period. It is the nature’s way of preparing a would-be mother for breast feeding the baby. Darkening of the nipples, firming up of the nipples and excess sensitiveness in them also take place which can be easily noticed by the woman.
• Increased frequency of Urination, Nausea, vomiting, dizziness, constipation, morning sickness, aversion towards some foods, craving for some foods, overall increase in weight etc
• As the time advances further, many of these symptoms will occur either simultaneously or one by one.

Resumption of ovulation after child birth

The time of return of periods, which indicates resumption of ovulation after a child birth, depends on one major factor. Does the mother breast feed the baby or not?

Such of those mothers who do not breast feed their babies will find that their period returns after about 10 weeks. Naturally there will be variations in the estimate. Ovulation generally takes place about 2 weeks prior to the beginning of periods. It means that for woman who does not breast feed, the ovulation would take place in about 8 weeks after child birth.

For regularly breastfeeding women, the menstrual cycle starts in about 20 weeks after delivery. This means that ovulation begins in about 18 weeks after child birth. The more regularly and systematically she breast-feeds the child, the more the onset of next ovulation gets delayed. This is the nature’s way of ensuring that the woman is not burdened with the next pregnancy too early, which will prove to be too detrimental to her health.

There are cases where the women regularly breastfeeding their babies over a year have not seen their periods resuming till they totally stopped breastfeeding!

However, it should be noted clearly that this fact can not be taken as a clear cut guideline for the couple to engage in unprotected sex hoping that nothing wrong would happen!