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Can You Time Your Pregnancy?

You can try for a certain month or season to deliver. But it's not that easy to schedule a pregnancy.

By Denise Mann
WebMD Feature

Reviewed by Robert S. Phillips, MD

Susan, a 31-year-old special education teacher from Toronto, wanted to get pregnant at the right time to give birth in June so she could have the whole summer off and be ready to start school again come fall.

Kelly, a 35-year old accountant in Las Vegas, planned her first pregnancy around the busy tax season (Jan. 1 to April 15) so she wouldn't let her firm or clients down during crunch time.

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And Jennifer, a 34-year-old corporate lawyer, didn't care when she got pregnant as long as her third trimester was not during the summer.

While all three women ultimately achieved healthy pregnancies, some were off by a season or two. Susan was able to time her maternity leave with summer recess. But Kelly had to hand over her accounts in advance of the busy season. And Jennifer ended up giving birth in early September, but thanks to the miracle of modern air conditioning, it wasn't as brutal as she anticipated.

Planning a Pregnancy Isn't Easy

"The problem is that we have bought into the idea that you can plan a pregnancy, and the fact is that many women wait to have a baby until they are ready to have a baby only to find out it's just not that easy," says Donnica Moore, MD, a women's health expert based in Far Hills, N.J.

"If you can time it to have your baby two weeks after the school semester ends and be back by the time it begins again in fall, that's wonderful, but very few women can do that and it is unrealistic for women to think that they can - especially the older they get even with perfect periods and no history of fertility problems," she tells WebMD.

But that shouldn't stop a girl from trying, she adds.

"If you feel very strongly that you want to time your pregnancy to be after a certain event, say after your medical boards if you are a medical student, it's fine to say that, 'Ideally I would like to get pregnant before X month,' but you have to be aware that for most women that is difficult to orchestrate."

The bottom line is that "there is no great time to be pregnant and no bad time to have a baby that you want," she says.

Be Realistic About Timing Pregnancy

Mark P. Leondires, MD, medical director of Reproductive Medical Associates of Connecticut in Norwalk, cautions against selecting specific seasons for reproductive reasons. Trying to perfectly time your pregnancy is "the kiss of death," he says.

"The problem is the expectation of getting pregnant when you think it going to happen, " he tells WebMD. "Routinely I find that when people set expectations, they set themselves up for disappointment."

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