You may have no sooner had your first child when your family and friends and even yourself and your partner begin to ask when is the best time to get pregnant again. Maybe you are reaching the end of your reproductive life and would like one more child. Maybe you want to stay home with the children, but don't want them spaced too far apart for fear that you will get too far behind in your career. Maybe when you had your last child there were complications, so you are nervous about when the next best time for you to get pregnant is.

As is true with most medical issues, when you are wondering, your first step should be to discuss the best time to get pregnant with your doctor. You individual medical history will determine the answer that is appropriate in your case. However, there are several very general, universal guidelines on when is the best time for a woman to get pregnant.

The first parameter to consider on when the best time to get pregnant is, is a woman's gynecological age. This age does not start at birth, but rather at the first menstruation. For example, if a girl had started her period at age twelve and was currently age sixteen, her gynecological age would be four. Usually women need a certain amount of time after menstruation begins for their bodies to finish developing and be prepared for childbirth. Most young girls are not considering this issue, but the rule-of-thumb is to wait until at least the gynecological age of four years.

If your gynecological age is greater than four years, you are good on that count. The next factor to consider when deciding the best time to get pregnant is the timing of your last pregnancy. This is important because during pregnancy, women give a lot of their body's vitamin and mineral stores to the developing child. After childbirth, the woman is low on things like iron and calcium.

Within a year, she will be able to gain back almost all of what she has lost. Female bodies are designed to be able to do this. However, if she were to get pregnant before her body's stores are built back up, she would again give vitamins and minerals to this baby, further depleting herself. This can leave the woman in a poor nutritional state when the pregnancy is over, and harm the baby as well. For this reason, the best time to get pregnant is not immediately after you have had another child. Similar recommendations exist if you have recently miscarried, so be sure to ask your doctor for personalized recommendations. Now get some rest and eat well so that you will be prepared for this pregnancy when the best time for you comes along!