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Waiting to get pregnant can be one of the most frustrating experiences, so anything that speeds the process along is welcome news. Now researchers are saying that  eating seafood may boost couples' chances of getting pregnant more quickly. A new study, released in the  Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism , shows that consumption of seafood twice a week, or more, increased sexual activity and decreased time until pregnancy. The team of researchers studied 501 couples in the United States who participated in a study on the ways environmental factors affect the ability to get pregnant. According to the study's abstract, couples recorded their seafood intake and sexual activity in journals. Results showed that couples who consumed two or more servings of fish per week were having sex more frequently, and that 92 percent of them were pregnant at the end of the yearlong study, according to Medical Xpress. That’s compared to a pregnancy rate of 79 pe...

My first experience giving birth without meds was crazy. I cried, I swore, I yelled, I called for my mom. The second time, thanks to a hypnosis training, I went into a deep relaxation between contractions. To the point that my midwife thought I was sleepingand decided to take a nap while I was on the verge of delivery. While I experienced as much pain the second time as the first, my experience was very different. Instead of anxiously panicking (and wallowing in self-pity) at the thought of the next contraction, I completely stopped resisting. I rested instead of wasting my energy being anxious. It went by easier, smoother and much faster. This isn’t an article about physical pain, though.  I’m not saying you too should go  au naturel  when you give birth or shouldn’t get shots at the dentist (I definitely get numbed up at the dentist).  The problem I’m addressing is that we freak about our emotional pain the way we do about our phy...

When you're trying to conceive (TTC), there are a lot of factors to be aware of and daily routines to tweak. Things like taking your basal body temperature and testing your urine for ovulation hormones quickly become automatically engrained. No doubt you're also experimenting with different positions for sex, and maybe even changing your schedule to accommodate your expected date of ovulation. So is it going too far to try and work out the time of day  when your partner's sperm count will be highest ? There's a lot of advice out there about timing, mostly centered around figuring out your exact moment of ovulation so you can flood your reproductive organs with sperm during that small window of opportunity. But there's more to it than that. There are two of you involved, after all, and couldn't your partner's contribution vary in potency depending on the time of day? When you're in the fog of the all-consuming TTC routine, every little bit of cl...

It’s a common phenomenon that, once a couple settles into the joys of a relationship, hanging out with friends takes on a totally new dynamic. Whether you’re a guy or a gal, hanging out with your single friends as a couple can get a little weird at times. And, in turn, your single friends end up feeling like the third wheel on your love bike. As a result, both singles and couples often find themselves spending time hanging out with their own kind rather than crossing the relationship-status divide. So how do you find a double-date as a new couple? While it seems like couples gravitate toward other couples, it’s not always easy to find couple friends that you both get along with. And, just like dating, finding a couple that meshes well with the both of you can take some trial and error. It’s almost like, well, dating. Here are some tips on how to find the perfect couple for your double date… Double Date Who You Know It’s worth starting the double date search by taking not...

Picture one of your major turn-ons. Yep, you know the one—that thing you'd NEVER admit to your BFF, because you're certain she'd find it gross. Everyone has different things that get them going during sex. But, unfortunately, the world can be pretty judge-y when it comes to anything that deviates from standard missionary penis-in-vagina intercourse. Which means being honest about your sexual likes, whether it's with a friend or a partner, can be pretty intimidating. But the reality is, there’s a whole world of sexual acts and preferences out there (kinky   fetishes, anyone?). And if you’re into something that seems out-of-the-norm, that's nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, that was precisely the topic at-hand on the recent Reddit thread aptly named:   Things that you like during sex that others find gross . Here's what they like between the sheets: KISSES POST-ORAL "Kissing after giving/receiving oral. Never understood why people thin...

The phrase “happy wife, happy life” might be true, but let’s be honest: it’s pretty one-sided. A successful marriage is a team sport, where both partners do their part to ensure the relationship is moving forward just as much as the life they’re building together is. If you want a successful marriage, you need to own your part in it. Here are 5 tips on how to be a better wife and build a healthy marriage: 1. Acknowledge what he does, not what he doesn’t. It’s easy to point out what your spouse isn’t doing. Like how he doesn’t pick up his wet towel from the bathroom floor, leaves the toilet seat up, or always manages to forget to take out the garbage. But you should acknowledge and express gratitude for what he does do too. Multiple studies have shown that expressing gratitude for everyday gestures can not only be a “powerful mechanism for relationship growth” but it can also sustain and maintain the longevity, as well as the intimacy, of your relationship. So the n...

Birth order has a great influence on child development, specifically because parents tend to raise each sibling differently—which can be both good and bad. But before you go blaming your parents, read on to see if it stands true for you, as there are mitigating factors. Eldest children are leaders Eldest children tend to be ambitious, driven leaders. "The firstborn gets a lot of focus and attention as there are no other children for distraction," says child and family therapist Meri Wallace, LCSW, author of Birth Order Blues. "The child can get lots of teaching, and so can grow up to feel very self-confident and strong enough to be a leader." This leadership role was noted by Alan Stewart, psychologist at University of Georgia, in his 2012 definitive analysis of birth order studies. Plus, parents often task firstborns with helping with younger siblings and chores, which develops their leadership role. "Mom will say, 'I have to take a showe...

Here are some ways your child's body might be trying to communicate a food sensitivity—and why it's important to pay attention. Nausea and vomiting It might look like something your child ate didn't sit well, or it might be tempting to chalk his or her symptoms up to the latest stomach bug going around, but a food sensitivity is worth considering if you start to see a pattern. If every time your child has eggs for breakfast, or milk in his cereal he feels nauseated, for example, it's worth mentioning to your pediatrician. Often times a food sensitivity will first reveal itself as an upset stomach, and parents might not see the correlation between the food and the symptom until the cycle has repeated itself a few times. If you do start to notice a pattern, try keeping a food diary and take notes about when and how often your child reacts to the food. Keep in mind that the first reactions to a food are often mild and will build in intensity with more e...

SparkyLinux is experiencing growing pains. You could say that this very capable Linux distribution was just too much of a great thing to last. Users previously had access to a continuously updated list of more than a dozen different download options. Depending on which variety you selected, you could choose from a wide range of desktop environments.  The SparkyLinux community released three branches; each branch issued new versions with different release numbers and different software packages. The release lineup was a dizzying smorgasbord of flavors. The options underscored one of the most inviting benefits of using the Linux platform.  All of the options had a common unifying developmental thread. No matter which desktop you chose, you got an open source platform that ran within a lightweight desktop shell. Starting with the release earlier this month of SparkyLinux 4.8 Stable Branch, users will have only two desktop choices going forward. Th...