From a biological point of view, conceiving a baby is a very simple process. Two cells meet, merge and that’s it. From an emotional point of view, it’s also a simple process – two people meet, like each other and that’s it. However, the difficulties come when we look at the process from a sexual point of view. And here, in some cases, things happen very easily, but if there is a stage that will create obstacles to “making a baby”, it is precisely sex. Exactly how much sex is needed to ensure that a woman becomes pregnant – this is the question that a team of scientists in New York, USA, set out to solve. The statistics collected from 1,200 young families show how unexpectedly difficult a task it can be to create an heir from the point of view of sex. According to the data, the period from making a decision to have a child to reporting a positive pregnancy test result is expressed in an average of 78 sexual contacts. It turns out that this is exactly how many times the partners have sex on average before the woman gets pregnant. It has been found that the time to conception after deciding to have a surrogate is on average 5-6 months. This means that at least 5 ovulations of a woman are not successfully utilized, and the reasons for this are the most diverse. NEWS_MORE_BOX In an effort to clarify them, scientists track whether the preferred sexual position of partners affects the probability of conception and how serious this effect is. It was established that of the 1,200 tracked cases, the most – about 50% – were the cases of conception of a baby in a missionary position. As the second most successful for conception, the so-called dog pose preferred by 30% of young parents tracked. However, it has been established that the most serious influence on successful conception is the strict monitoring of a woman’s ovulation. Only 5% of the tracked couples were guided by it in their attempts to make a baby, but the data show that in these cases, successful conception can be achieved with just 2-3 sexual contacts per month. And to prove that successful conception is primarily a matter of luck, scientists present an indicative and slightly mystical fact. Although 13 is considered a fatal number, that’s how many times a month most couples had sex in which the woman successfully conceived within the first months of deciding to have a baby.