Did anyone fall pregnant without tracking ovulation

[Candlesandflowers]

I’m going to start TTC but my husband thinks we should just stop using contraception rather than tracking ovulation etc as we know quite a few couples that have been really rigid about it and struggled.

has anyone successfully got pregnant that way ? The conception board had freaked me out and made me worried that just not using contraception isn’t going to be enough but equally I see my husbands point that being super rigid will make it more stressful and stress won’t help either

The first time, yes. It took two months and I was 31. And very lucky. The second took 18m - I turned out to be ovulating extremely late.

I wasn't prepared for it to be so soon and it was bloody hard work having them so close in age

I wish it had taken a few months longer tbh

Yes - I tracked periods for overall cycle length but never did ovulation sticks etc for either of my DC. We just had sex every 1-2 days all the time I wasn't on my period.

I'd had a miscarriage before DS and it took 6 months till I got pregnant with DS

I don't call him my rainbow baby because someone on MN once said they hated it and it made them feel second best which I realised I probably would too

Yes. First week of unprotected sex both times.

Yes

3 times

Twice, it literally was “just the once” 😬

HNRTFT but can honestly say that tracking both ovulation and HCG levels is a guaranteed reason for the anxiety that this generation are experiencing!
My children were conceived for no particular reason .
Unless there are fertility issues just relax.

Yes, accidentally and also I tried tracking and none of it made any sense (because wild or nonexistent cycles) and then I was pregnant

We never ttc we just went about normal life and then it happened

Three times - the third time I was using the mirena coil.

I read somewhere that Virgin Mary was not tracking, but apart from her, I imagine every woman from the first Neanderthal to the pregnant teenager down the road were actively tracking

Yes. 3 times. Once even with the morning after pill.

Most couples will get pregnant within 6 months of trying. Having a lot of sex will increase your chances of course

I did. We decided the time was right and let nature take its course, but tried to conceive more frequently than normal. Though the frequency dropped after the first few weeks.

can i just highlight that tracking doesn't necessarily mean ovulation sticks etc....women have done "natural" forms of tracking for donkeys years, as before reliable contraception(and probably still in many countries) this was one of the only things women had access to ,to try and avoid pregnancy. This includes observing cervical mucous and basal body temperature . For anyone who is struggling to conceive I highly recommend Tony Wechslers book "taking charge of your fertility" .

What? Of course! I’ve been pregnant a dozen times. All accidents. All using contraception. For every woman struggling to conceive there’s at least one more with the opposite problem who ends up paying a fortune for private surgery in their 30’s to resolve the issue.
a couple generations ago before contraception and sterilisation was widely available, families were often absolutely huge they were usually piss poor too and we’re definitely not ‘trying’ or tracking cycles.

Yes twice. It’s really not that hard.

I’d stay away from the conception board for a while. Much like the relationships board it gives you only one side of the situation.

No. We were on holiday, and decided we would start TTC. Came home pregnant...

Yeah. Most people who have ever had kids 😂 not using contraception is a very reasonable approach to reproducing. That's literally why contraception exists.

Really? 👀

no tracking (had an idea that I would track if not pregnant in 6 months)
pregnant first month of not preventing every time

there's a reason people use contraception!!

Everyone I know who has stressed about getting pregnant and tracked cycles etc has really struggled getting pregnant.

Our plan was just to have lots of unprotected sex for a year and if it hadn't happened by then we were going to have a talk at that point and see what we wanted to do then.

We conceived first month both times. Slightly gutted we didn't get to have more unprotected sex but also incredibly grateful for it to have happened so quickly.

Stress does weird things to your cycle.

The first time I took six months to fall pregnant, I did start tracking ovulation by the end, though with hindsight I think it just took a while because I was coming off the pill.

The second time we weren’t trying, I shouldn’t have been ovulating and we only had sex once that month 🤣 Definitely no tracking with that one!!

This! Women have "tracked" cycles for centuries but using basic methods of observing body changes and without the biological knowledge of what was actually happening. So what now we'd call a chemical pregnancy or an early miscarriage would just have been a bit of a late period in the past.

Combined with it being down to the man when they had sex - either at the right time for conception or if trying to avoid pregnancy - women didn't have much choice about getting pregnant even if they were tracking