Having a baby is perhaps the most amazing feeling in the world. The moment you decide to settle down with your favorite person and have a child together is the start of a new chapter in life and it is often the most joyous occasion.

If you are considering having a child this year, there are more options open to you than becoming pregnant or adding to your family, and today we are going to take a look at many of the methods you can choose in order to add a child to your family this year.

Natural sex

Of course, the most natural method for conceiving a child is intercourse. Most people choose this as their first choice, and this can be an amazing method as it allows you to share intimacy while breathing life into a new child.

Artificial insemination

There are three different ways that you can perform artificial insemination as a couple. The act of artificial insemination involves sperm being inserted directly into the womb with a syringe. This is a good option if the father has slow swimmers and may otherwise struggle to impregnate, and it can also be an option for those with other performance issues. This can be carried out by inserting the father’s sperm into the mother, or a donor’s sperm. It can even be done using a surrogate.

In vitro fertilization (IVF)

For those who struggle to conceive naturally, IVF is a godsend and it can be a miracle method for having a child. If you are looking to have a baby and you are unable to carry the embryo in your own womb, or if the only way to fertilize is to place the sperm and eggs together, this is ideal. It can be expensive so it is worth checking does insurance cover IVF but it can be a good option for couples. IVF can be carried out with the mother and father’s DNA, with a donor, both donors, with frozen embryos and much more. There is a world of options available to suit anyone.

Cytoplasmic transfer

This method for having a child is one which is still in its infancy, however, if this becomes more widespread it could change the lives of many mothers. If as a woman you find out that you have fertility issues, you can use this method to help increase your fertility and allow your eggs to become fertilized. This is done by extracting ooplasm from the eggs of a fertile woman and injecting this into the eggs of a woman with fertility issues. This should increase fertility and allow a woman to have a natural genetic child even with issues.

Nuclear transfer and cloning

Obviously this option is one which is a little out of the realms of normalcy, but in the next few decades, this could really be a viable for reproduction for all people. We’ve all heard of Dolly the Sheep, and cloning is something which has been explored in countless sci-fi arenas for decades now. It is not the most normal option on the list, but it is indeed an option to think about if you are desperate to have a child of your own.

Assisted hatching

There are also some ways to aid in the options above, and assisted hatching is a great example of this. When using IVF or ICSI as a method of having a child, you can use this technique to open the zona pellucida (embryo shell), and this is supposed to encourage the embryo to hatch and successfully plant itself on the walls of the uterus. It is important to know that IVF is always a risk if the embryo doesn’t settle in the uterus wall, so this could be a helpful addition to the treatment.

Fragment Removal

If you want to take IVF and assisted hatching even further, you can remove cell debris from the area around the embryo and this should also help to encourage attachment and growth. The only issue with this treatment is that by moving cells there is a risk that the development of the embryo can be impaired.

Co-culture

One of the helpful ways to avoid any cell debris attaching to the embryo in the first place is to use co-culture. This is a method by which the embryo is cultured on top of cells from the fallopian tubes of the mother, and this will often help to improve the quality of the embryo and the chance of a healthy baby.

Testicular Sperm Aspiration (TESA):

There are methods that help women who are thought to be infertile to mother a child, but what about the father? Well, testicular sperm aspiration is a method that allows men who have been thought to have no sperm (azoospermic men) to get a shot at fathering a child. This is done by obtaining some sperm from men who are thought to have none (most men at least have some) by extracting cells from the testicles.

Adoption

Although having a natural baby is something we all want in life, it might not always be an option for us. This is why adoption can be a wonderful choice for those who need it. There are babies and children all over the world who need a home. Whether they are born in a bad circumstance or simply have been taken away from a dangerous home, there are many children who need a safe and loving home to grow up in. If you are happy to forego a natural child, adopting a child in need can be the most rewarding thing you ever do.

Single sperm freezing

By freezing one sperm cell in the shell if an animal egg, it can be easily retrieved to thaw and this allows it to be used for the insemination of the mother’s egg. This is often used in conjunction with TESA and is a useful tool for those who want to father a child with the person they love.

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