How To Have a Baby

We all know that in order to have a baby that a man and a woman must have vaginal sex, but what actually happens inside the vagina after ejaculation?

This article covers the process that takes place in order for a pregnancy to occur. If you are having trouble getting pregnant yourself please keep reading, the first step to solving a problem is understanding what is wrong. Just like a mechanic must know how a car works in order to fix it, couples who want to know how to have a baby must understand how the reproductive system works when trying to conceive a pregnancy.

There is a lot of confusion about the subject of sperm escaping the vagina. You may have read about using certain sex positions or hanging upside down after sex to ‘hold’ the sperm inside the vagina. In actual fact, once semen is ejaculated into the vagina the sperm penetrate into the cervical mucus, leaving behind the seminal fluid. It is the seminal fluid that leaks out of your vagina after sex, not sperm escaping. When you are fertile, your reproductive system and hormones work to create the perfect environment for sperm, allowing the sperm to easily transfer from the seminal fluid to the cervical mucus.

Once sperm has transferred to the cervical mucus, they do not all swim simultaneously towards the egg. The sperm are temporarily stored in the cervical canal, which acts as the gateway between the vagina and the uterus. Over a period of approximately two days, the sperm are slowly released and swim through up through the Fallopian tubes to hopefully meet a viable egg.

To increase your chances of having a baby, the sperm will ideally already be ejaculated before the egg is released (sex should regularly occur in the days leading up to, and on the day, of ovulation). To release an egg, your ovaries are first stimulated by a hormone called follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). This causes a follicle inside the ovary to grow. Once matured, the follicle ruptures and releases the egg (ovulation) into the Fallopian tube where it begins to travel towards the uterus.

Fertilization occurs inside the Fallopian tube if a viable sperm penetrates a viable egg. It is not possible for a non viable sperm to penetrate an egg. Non viable sperm are of low quality and may have physical abnormalities and poor motility. Likewise, some eggs are not viable either, whether due to the woman’s age or for an unexplained reason that with current technology can only be attributed to by natural selection.

When a sperm fertilizes an egg, the two combined together form a single cell called an embryo. Over a couple of days the embryo cell divides into 2, 4, 8 cells etc. While this is happening it is making its way down the Fallopian tube into the uterus. Once in the uterus, the embryo implants itself into the endometrium (uterus lining). This occurs roughly 7 days after ovulation. The implanted embryo begins to release a hormone called Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin (HCG) which tells the ruptured follicle (now called a corpus luteum) to continue to release the hormone progesterone. The continued release of progesterone prevents the shedding of the uterus lining (your period) from occuring, and instead supports the endometrium so that the embryo has a suitable environment to grow.

As you can see conception is a complex and lengthy process and there are many things that can go wrong. In fact, it is estimated that 50% of fertilized eggs do not survive. Further to this, 20% of known pregnancies result in miscarriage, most of them in the early stages of pregnancy and often without any explanation. If you are trying to get pregnant, there are steps you can take to increase the chances of 1) successfully conceiving, and 2) having a healthy pregnancy free from abnormalities and deformities.

Please visit my article on how to get pregnant for some actionable tips to increase your chances of a conceiving a healthy baby.