How does anyone ever get pregnant and deliver a healthy baby?! There are SOOO many steps that need to happen in order for it to work. 😐

The 6 Steps⁣ After Ovulation…

1. Fertilization: The best time for the egg to get fertilized is right after ovulation, as the lifespan of the egg is short. Ideally, there’s sperm already waiting inside the fallopian tubes right when your egg is ovulated. ⁣
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2. Cleavage stage: Your egg was fertilized (hopefully!) and cell division has started. These are crucial days for the tiny little embryo. ⁣⁣
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3. Blastula stage: For those of you who are undergoing IVF, this stage will sound familiar. Most embryo transfers are done with so-called “blastocysts”. In IVF, this works a bit like a natural selection process where only the strongest and healthiest embryos make it to this stage and are ready to transferred or frozen. This isn’t just relevant for IVF, every embryo needs to go through all of these stages for you to get pregnant.⁣
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4. Implantation: This is the moment your uterus has been preparing for; implantation! There’s a specific time frame where this can happen and in most pregnancies that end in a live birth, implantation happens around 8-10 days after ovulation. Embryos that implant after day 12 have a low chance of making it to live birth.⁣⁣
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5. Positive pregnancy test: And now the moment YOU have been waiting for… getting that big fat positive (BFP)! If you test with a sensitive test, you might be able to pick up some of that pregnancy hormone (hCG) that the implanted embryo has started to secrete just a few short days after implantation. ⁣⁣
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6. Due date: And finally, 266 days after ovulation, your baby is due! So if you’ve been accurately tracking ovulation, you have a pretty good way of knowing your due date long before your first ultrasound scan. ⁣⁣
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And there you have it, from egg to baby in 266 days! ⁣⁣