Out of interest (and not because I am obsessing or anything) do you think your mother's fertility/miscarriage history impacts on your own?

[Thandeka]

My mum took 3 years to get pregnant but once she got a sticky bean it stuck- she has never had a miscarriage. I was fully expecting it to take me 3 years but I started 3 years earlier than my mum and my partner is 6months younger than me rather than an aged 47! So in the end it has taken me 5 months (touch wood it sticks)- so in that sense I have not "inherited" my mothers fertility (to be fair though she had NO clue when she ovulated and I have charted for years)

Anyhow just musing about whether your risk of miscarriage increased if there was a family history of miscarriage.

Any opinions?

My mum claimed she was a virgin before she married my dad. They got married in January, I was born October that same year! She didn't even realise she was pregnant with me till she... uh... put on weight.

For me, once I came off bcp, I didn't get a period for 8 months but once I went on the meds and got one period, we conceived the next cycle. DH's family is also known for their 'fertility'! And I am pregnant again (a bit of a shock as DS has just turned one...). So I guess in terms of fertility, it is true.

What was interesting though was that my mum had a quick labour with us both (brother and I) AND we both came early. My dad missed my birth apparently. Didn't take that seriously until DS came... He was a week early and I had a breath-takingly quick labour as well!

I think it has a big impact - I know of a woman who couldn't conceive until she was 42, same age as her mother and grandmother had both had an only child...

No - my mum sniffed a sperm and got caught, hence 11 months between me and my sister

Waited a year and had another, then got pregnant first month of trying 9 years later.

Me - took 10 years and 3 lots of IVF for 1, my sister has given up trying now without success.

Not for me, no.

My mum had no fertility problems at all. Had 3 children with no problems at all. No infertility issues, no losses, etc. There are 16m between me and my borther, and then (through their choice) annother 8 years til my sister came along.

DH's mum is very much the same.

Me on the other hand - very different. Took a while to have DD - 15m, early mc, another 15m to become pregnant with DD. Been TTc for #2 for over 4.5 years. Been treated for Asherman's Syndrome successfully; all hormone tests and scans, etc. have come back clear with no problems; but still no luck.

my mum always told me to be careful about using protection because each time she didn't, even once, she got pregnant. (she had nine children in 15 years. she said it was the same for her mother too. so far she is right. i have been pregnant twice in my 30 odd years and both times i stopped using protection that month and immediately fell pregnant and at different times in my cycle. needless to say i am very strict with contraception and always will be.

my older sisters are all approaching the menopause and all seem to be getting the sympptoms at exactly the same time my mum did.

this post-focuses on fertility but i think the same would be true if it were the other way round and many of my girlfriends have similar stories either way.

My Mum was mega fertile, 3 pregnancies wthout trying, 3 healthy babies. My Grandmother had 6 children from 6 pregnancies !

I have had 3 mc, 2 prems, take an age to concieve and my pregnancies are awful !

Hmm, haven't really thought about it but my mum got caught with me and my sister easily. We had sex unprotected once each time to conceive DD and this one I am pg with. DS we caught on the 2nd month of trying.

My Mum had five children (all girls) and was sterilised after she had me (tried not to take it too personally!). Apart from my two older sisters all of us have a 2 year gap between us. She basically had a baby, breastfed for a year and then got pregnant with the next one when she finished. She has had one miscarriage as well.
She has 11 grandchildren from me and my sisters and none of us have had a miscarriage, 4/5 of us get pregnant really easy and 1 of my sisters took a couple of years to conceive her 2nd baby, mainly just because she has irregular periods.
So definitely in my family we have always been lucky to conceive easily.

i think it does

my mum has suffered something like 13 m/cs over the years and had ivf for my bro and sis! consequently i had 2 m/cs in 2007 and took a while to concieve this time round (i have 3yr old ds btw)

my mum also had to have a hysterectomy at 36 due to severe endiometriosis. i do believe it has an impact on you. following my preg history with 2 m/cs and taking a while to concieve this time. also alot of my family have fertility probs...my aunty has ovarian cysts too!

I think it could be a co incidence. Although I like my mum conceived both DD and this lo within a month after coming off the pill. Bit of a shocker on both counts TBH as was expecting it to take a few months at the least.

My great aunt had 3 MC and both of her daughters had multiple MCs before they finally had DC.

my mother had 4 children, one MC.

took me 3 years, 2 mcs then got ds.
Been trying 2 years again and had anther mc,
so no, no correlation here.

All the women in my family seem to get pregnant the very first time of trying, or even when not trying! It was the same for me - 3 pregnancies, all in the first month of trying.

i am the only woman in my family with fertility problems. my dads mum has 6 dc's, my mums mum had 8 dc's my mum had 3 and my aunties have all had v uncomplicated obstetric histories. it makes me feel like a bit of a freak tbh.

I have always put the difference between me, my Mum and my sisters' fertility down to the fact that I am the only one who doesn't smoke. I'm 29 weeks pregnant with what will be my 4th baby, I had an early miscarriage in July then conceived again straight away. My youngest sister miscarried her first pregnancy at 9w, my other sister took a year to fall pregnant with her daughter, my Mum fell pregnant quickly with her first two pregnancies, took over a year to conceive my sister then fell pregnant 9 months after having her with my other sister.

We've all had very different births & babies too. I was delivered bang on time and was the heaviest at 7lb6oz but all my Mum's other babies were early and quick labours (6lb11oz, 5lb14oz and 4lb15oz). My sister had her daughter (6lb10oz) 5 days late after needing a synto drip and forceps. My eldest was 5 days late (12lb3oz), my second was induced and delivered 13 days late (9lb3oz) and my third was 5 weeks early (7lb3oz).

Also worth mentioning for us is that at 5'8" and size 16-18 I'm the second smallest but heaviest of us all. My Mum is 5'11" and a size 12-14, my sister is 5'9" and a size 12-14, my other sister is 5'5" and a size 12.

my dad had a practically non existant sperm count so hard to tell.

think she's probably quite fertile as when they went to a docs about fetility issues (took 4 years to have me, then no more) the doctor asked her 'are you sure this man is the father of your child?' as technically he shouldn't have been able to! so she must have gotton pregnant with the one and only sperm he created that decade

labours were differant too but think that has to do with personality... my dad got drunk once and admitted to me privately that she was freaking out about it all (dutch hospital so were making her squat and had her quite stripped off and her irish catholic mentality wasn't comfortable with it) and he didn't think she was really pushing, just tensing up against the pain... hence long drawn out 2nd stage culminating in forceps.

we do both suffer from aenemia, weird low blood pressure and we both haemoraged after our first birth (her only birth) though

Drs were VERY interested in family history of miscarriages even though I'd never had one but relatives had had lots, when they were diagnosing dd2's syndrome......

I've seen a specialist because of recurrent miscarriage and he wanted to know about pregnancies and miscarriages in my mother and also any sisters. He did not seem particularly interested in the pregnancy history of my husband's family.

I am one of 6 - my mum seemed to fall pregnant easily. It took us two years and treatment so the theory doesn't hold for me.

I struggled to conceive DS, it took 2.5 years and fertility treatment. When we decided to go for number 2, I conceived almost immediately. My mother had the same experience; she took one of the earliest forms of fertility drug to have me, then conceived my brother by accident.

My mum fell pregnant with me and my sister first month of trying (at 30 and 31). She has had one early miscarriage.

I fell pregnant with my 2 children very quickly, too, (at 28 and 31) with one early m/c in between.

I have no idea if that's just coincidence or not!