If you’ve never been pregnant, you don’t know whether you will have problems or not conceiving, so statistically you must be more likely to face fertility challenges than a woman who is already a mother… true or false?
It may seem logical that first timers are more likely to face fertility problems than people who are already parents. After all, if you’ve just started on the path of trying to become a parent, you have no idea whether you’ll conceive first go, whether it will take several months or whether – a year down the line – you will be deemed to be one of the 14% of couples facing fertility problems.
But it’s a half-baked logic that doesn’t hold up. There are many factors that can affect your fertility, but not having been through pregnancy before is not one of them. In fact, the reverse can be true. Women who’ve had the misfortune to suffer an ectopic pregnancy may have reduced fertility from having a fallopian tube removed, although many women do go on to have successful pregnancies following an ectopic pregnancy. Researchers in Aberdeen have also found that women who have had a previous miscarriage are more likely to suffer complications in subsequent pregnancies that those who are pregnant for the first time. Another study in Aberdeen also found that women who bled following a Caesarean were less likely to conceive again, although women who had postpartum haemorrhage with a vaginal delivery suffered no detrimental effects on their fertility.
So complications from a first pregnancy can, occasionally, have an impact on your fertility, but when you start out for the first time, you have the same odds as anyone else. Unless you have a known condition that is likely to impact on your fertility, such as polycystic ovary syndrome, the most significant factors that may impact on how long it takes for you to conceive are likely to be your age, diet and lifestyle. So, if you don’t already have a healthy diet and lifestyle , make the necessary changes to give yourself the best possible chance of getting pregnant, relax and enjoy the process of trying for your first baby.
