How to Get Pregnant

Trying to conceive can be the most joyful -- and heartbreaking -- experience a woman will ever go through. According to the American Pregnancy Association, 16,438 women in the U.S. become pregnant each day. But having a baby doesn't always happen overnight; in fact, often it takes time, patience, and a lot of emotional energy.

Top 4 Conceiving Myths

If you're trying to get pregnant, you should start having sex as much as possible.
Infertility is almost always a woman's problem.
There's no way to control whether you have a boy or girl.
Trying-to-have-a-baby sex inevitably starts feeling like a chore.

Increases in the use of fertility drugs have caused a surge of multiple births in the last two decades, specialists say. Many aging and childless couples are demanding aggressive fertility therapies more likely to produce multiple births. About three million infants have been born worldwide using in vitro fertilization or other reproductive technologies.

What Hopeful Moms-To-Be Can Try to Get Pregnant

Determining your most fertile days is the single best thing you can do for success, according to Kim Hahn, founder and editor in chief of Conceive magazine. Then have sex every other day starting about a week before ovulation. Since sperm can live in the female reproductive tract for a few days, having sex every other day will ensure that sperm are present when you ovulate. Too much sex can actually reduce a man's sperm count temporarily.

When a couple begins trying to conceive, both should have full reproductive screenings to look for any irregularities. Male infertility is just as likely to be the culprit as female infertility -- in fact, it's about a 50-50 split.

Many sex selection methods are hit or miss, but according to some doctors, female sperm swim slower than male sperm, so if you are trying for a boy, have sex right after ovulation, and if you want a girl, stop having sex two days before ovulation.

There are also high-tech options that have a much greater chance of influencing the sex of the baby -- for example, MicroSort®, a technique that sorts sperm into X-bearing (female) and Y-bearing (male) sperm, done with intrauterine insemination or in vitro fertilization. If you're doing IVF, you can also determine gender with preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) -- that is, testing your embryos before they're implanted into the womb. PGD is primarily used to find out whether any of your embryos carry a genetic disorder, but a handful of clinics will do it just for sex selection (rather than medical) reasons. While sex selection using PGD gives you a 100% guarantee, many people believe it brings up ethical issues, including sex discrimination.

When you're trying to conceive, having sex on a schedule can get boring and stressful. But you can keep it sensual by adding some variety to your routine:

Skip sex between the days you are most fertile. When the time for baby-making is ripe, the passion will be soaring.
Have sex somewhere other than the bed. Try the kitchen countertops or the living room couch.
Do it at different times of the day. If you usually make love at night, try going at it in the morning before work, or meet each other at home during your lunch break.