Being pregnant can and should be one of the most exciting and fulfilling times of a woman’s life, but unfortunately it can also be one of the most stressful times too. The woman needs to have ripened and released a healthy egg from one of her ovaries. This travels down one of her two fallopian tubes, stroked along its length by the tiny, finger-like cilia fronds which line the tubes.

Sperm then swim past the cervix, through the womb and up into the fallopian tubes to meet the descending egg. Eggs can live about 24 hours and sperm may live for two to three days, so they need to find each other within this fairly brief period. Several sperm may reach the egg at about the same time, but one needs to be able to break through the egg’s protective shell and get inside.

Once this has happened, the nucleus of the sperm fuses with that of the egg and the egg’s wall becomes impenetrable to other sperm. The egg spends the next two or three days passing down the remainder of the fallopian tube, then reaches the womb cavity, where it floats free for two or three days. Conception has now taken place.

Inside the fertilized egg, the combined ball of egg and sperm nuclei have been dividing, first in two, then four, eight, sixteen and so on, to develop into a cluster of cells called an embryo. when a sperm cell fuses with an egg cell, the result is a ball of their nuclei. Sperm and egg each donate 23 chromosomes, making a set of 23 pairs in all. These form the genetic blueprint for your future baby, and cover everything from hair and eye color to blood group. However, it is the father who determines a baby’s gender. Women’s cells have two X chromosomes, so egg cells always contribute an X chromosome; whereas sperm cells may contain either one X or one Y. When a Y chromosome combines with an X, it results in a male baby. If an X-carrying sperm fertilizes the egg, the baby will be a girl.

The embryo embeds itself in the blond-rich lining of the womb. You are now technically pregnant. However, it is believed that as many as 40 per cent of pregnancies are lost at this stage because the embryo does not implant itself properly.

The womb lining is kept in place (rather than being shed in a normal monthly period) by extra progesterone produced by your ovaries. It is the major upsurge in the amount of this hormone in the body that makes many pregnant women feel nauseous in the first few weeks of pregnancy.

This entire process, made to look so easy by couples who conceive quickly, or accidentally, is very finely balanced throughout. It is thought that perhaps as many as 20 per cent of embryos which do implant are lost in what seems to be a late period.

Sexuality is an innate part of who we are. Sex is a place where our spirit can connect us to a higher place, a place where our creativity and sense of self is free. This is a place of self expression at its most vulnerable state, where we are truly merging with another person. And not only that, but sex drastically reduces stress because of the hormones released during orgasm. The hormones released also allow us to feel more connected to the person we share this orgasm with as well. There are biological, spiritual and emotional reasons for these feelings of euphoria and connectedness.

If you are a woman who has fallen into the rut there are many things you can do to ignite your spark again. One thing that can really help is to not buy those trashy magazines that tell you all about how to please him, what the best positions are or the ones that suggest that you need to look like a Barbie for you to enjoy sex and for your partner to want you.

The biggest problems with these approaches are because in part they are lies. And when it comes down to the Truth, you need to learn about what makes YOU feel sexy. What makes YOU enjoy sex. And in discovering that, we learn more about the experience of it all instead of the act of it all. The act of sex is fine, but that is not where sexuality and fulfillment live.

Sexuality and fulfillment live in the experience of our sexual acts. To experience what we are dong we need to be conscious. Experiencing means to be alive to what everything feels like, having your senses fully awake. Being conscious of what feels good and what doesn’t. What we like and what we don’t like. What we like to give and what we like to receive. Being in the conscious and in the moment also means that we are not in our heads wondering if that stupid fat roll just made its big debut.

Here are some tips to get your sexual and sensual side revved up:
• When you see something with texture, touch it. Touch it with your finger tips, and with the front and back of your hands. Close your eyes if you can and really feel it.
• When something smells good, take a minute to take a few deep breaths. What does it feel like to allow it all in?
• When you sit down to eat pay attention. Avoid just chewing and swallowing. Smell the food, put it up to your lips and feel it. Place the food in your mouth and see what it feels like rolling around in there. How does it feel on your tongue? On the roof of your mouth or the insides of your cheeks?
• When you listen to music can you feel it? How does it make you feel?
• Allow yourself to fantasize without judgment and unedited. Do this a couple times each day.

In our world today we are over stimulated with sex without meaning. We have left the importance of a healthy sexual appetite behind and replaced it with the need to work, raise our children and be all that we feel we are supposed to be. In truth, it is really traumatic for our soul to be cut off from the everyday sensual experiences that have the ability to ignite the passion that it craves. When we stop seeing sex as a chore and accept that we are sexual creatures we will begin to create a more healthy culture that views thriving sexuality as a pure and powerful place for us to reach new levels in fulfillment.