Every woman has at least one good friend who seems to conceive just by saying the word "baby". Every woman also has a close friend who desperately tries to conceive but cannot. But no matter how strong the bonds of sisterhood, women seldom discuss an issue as sacred as conception. One couple in six experiences fertility problems serious enough to warrant medical intervention, but they tend to feel ashamed of their difficulties. Men wonder about their virility and potency; women worry about their essential femininity.

Getting pregnant is neither mystical nor magical. Many women simply do not know their bodies well enough to manage Mother Nature's cycles. And many women do not understand that the more they stress and obsess with conceiving, the less likely they are to succeed. Before couples resort to expensive, often frustrating fertility treatments or in vitro fertilization, they should give Mother Nature fair opportunity to work Her own designs.

Get a Check-up

Women typically do not rank reproductive health very high on their priority lists, so they skip annual obstetric check-ups. Women who want to become pregnant should have a complete exam before they start trying. A complete exam is especially important for women who are susceptible to yeast and bladder infections, or women who have been treated for a sexually-transmitted disease. A complete battery of tests also may uncover problems in your fallopian tubes that obstruct ovulation, or problems in the uterine walls that inhibit attachment. You would not take your car on a long road trip without getting it examined; the same principle applies to your reproductive system. Pregnancy stresses and tests the bodily system all the way to its limits. Make sure it is healthy.

Mindset Matters

Plan it, manage it, but do not stress about it. Anxiety, stress, and depression change your body's pH, making it more acidic. Although the pH change is almost undetectable, it is just enough to make a woman's reproductive system inhospitable to otherwise healthy sperm. A woman's body is far more sensitive to her moods and intuition than her mind, so that a woman's body responds to her partner's frame of mind as much as to his touch. If your partner is not thoroughly committed to parenthood, your body can tell. Many specialists encourage couples struggling to get pregnant to first seek marriage counseling, because both partners must understand and embrace everything about parenthood. Open and honest emotional communication fosters "effective" sexual communication.

Know Your Cycle

Chart your cycle for several months before you begin seriously trying to conceive. The chart serves to help you predict your ovulation, which can take place any time between the tenth and the sixteenth day after you begin your regular monthly period. You also must take your temperature every day from the beginning through the middle of your cycle, because body temperature spikes at the time of ovulation. As you reach the middle of your cycle, you may supplement the thermometer with an ovulation predictor. Designed and fashioned to work just like an in-home pregnancy test, the ovulation predictor changes color to indicate a change in your hormones as you ovulate. When the thermometer rises and the predictor changes color, it's time to get busy. You are most likely to conceive on the day you ovulate and for two days afterwards.

Give those Little Swimmers some Help

Mindset matters and mechanics matter even more. When you are trying to conceive, deep penetration gives sperm a healthy head start on their journey to union with the egg. Choose sexual positions that promote deep penetration, and have sex two or three times each day during ovulation. Keep in mind, however, that a man's sperm need five or six hours to restore their full count. After intercourse, relax for a while, laying comfortably on your back and tilting your pelvis up, so that the little swimmers get some help from gravity. To reduce strain on your back and abdominal muscles, support yourself with a couple of pillows. As the little sperm swim their hearts out, do your Kegel exercises to give them a little extra push. You need to prepare your vaginal muscles for delivery anyway.