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Why bed rest after your embryo transfer is bad for you


Most IVF patients are petrified that they will do something which will reduce their chance of getting pregnant after their embryo transfer .
They imagine that their fragile precious embryo is floating in their uterus , and if they eat something too hot or too cold , or go through a pot hole, they will dislodge the embryo and end up killing it. This is why they are always on tenterhooks after the transfer.
A lot of these misconceptions are compounded by old wives tales , which advice patients to take bed rest after an embryo transfer , so that it does not fall out!
Now, this is all rubbish. There's nothing you can do to increase the chances of the embryo implanting, which also means there's nothing you can do to decrease the chances either. Embryo implantation is an in utero biological process , which we cannot influence.
Please stop thinking of yourself as a patient. You're a healthy woman , who has done IVF in order to get your pregnancy started , which means there's nothing unnatural or artificial about it !
All we are doing is replicating what would normally have happened in your bedroom ! In IVF, what's not happening in your bedroom is being done for you in the IVF lab.Remember that whether the embryo spends five days in our test tube , or it spends five days in you're your fallopian tube, once it's reached the uterus, it's safe like a pearl in an oyster !
Unnecessary bed rest is actually bad for you, because it just needlessly increases your stress levels. An idle mind is a devil's workshop, and you keep on brooding about what's happening to your embryos inside you. This increases your stress levels, and makes the waiting seem even longer than it is !
Need help in getting pregnant ? Please send me your medical details by filling in the form at www.drmalpani.com/free-second-opinion so that I can guide you !
Authored by : Dr Aniruddha Malpani, MD and reviewed by Dr Anjali Malpani.