Experts have getting pregnant down to a science. Researchers from the University of Warwick and the London School of Economics have calculated a woman’s odds of conceiving based on age and length of time she has been trying to get pregnant.

Since fertility drops with age, the general likelihood of conceiving peaks at age 25, and plummets after age 35.

The formula, which was published in the scientific journal PLoS One, also takes into account how many months a woman has been trying to get pregnant, and the odds of conceiving drops dramatically as length of time increases.

For example, the formula has determined that a 25-year-old woman who has been trying to get pregnant for six months has a 15 percent chance of conceiving within the month, while a woman who is 35 and has been trying for 12 months only has a six percent chance of getting pregnant.

By age 40, the odds of drop even further to just one percent after two years.

The general rule of thumb is to seek medical help after one year of not conceiving, but age also plays a major factor in a woman’s fertility.

“As time goes by and people have been trying for a while, they start to get stressed and upset and that can affect their chances of having sex and then becoming pregnant. one of the researchers, Professor Geraldine Hartshorne, said.

“Approaching a doctor about a personal matter is daunting, so knowing the right time to start investigations would be a useful step forward.”

What do YOU think of this formula HollyMoms?

– Christina Stiehl

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There’s nothing like a bond between a mother and her son, but now the connection goes further than scientists originally thought, according to a new study.

When a woman is pregnant with a baby boy, some of his DNA can be transmitted through the mother’s body and up to her brain, researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle have determined.

The same way a woman passes oxygen and nutrients to her unborn baby through the placenta, the fetus can also send DNA up to the mother, the study suggests. The baby’s cells and his descendants can stay in a woman for decades — male DNA was found in the brain of a 93-year-old woman after she died.

The study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, is the first to find male DNA in women’s brains, although previous studies have found male cells in women’s blood, bone marrow, hearts, and lungs, among other organs.

Although the male DNA could lead to higher odds of bowel and skin cancer, the condition known as microchimerism overall believed to be good for a woman’s health — male DNA may help women fight breast cancer by boosting her immune response, because male cells help protect the woman’s immune system while still fighting off infections.

Also, women live longer than men, and some scientists think that it would be due in part to the introduction of “fresh” cells from the fetus. Although there is no certainty that little girls can’t also pass on their DNA in the same way, it is much harder to test.

What do YOU think of this study HollyMoms? Were you pregnant with a boy — how does this make you feel now? Let us know in the comments below!

– Dory Larrabee & Christina Stiehl

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1. New Jersey Special Needs Students Learn With iPads — Watch
2. Baby Bonding: How The First 18 Months Can Shape Your Love Life
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A new study from Oregon State University has concluded that kids who can sit and focus are more likely to graduate from college than young children who get easily distracted, according to data that was collected during a span of 25 years.

The study followed 430 kids from the time they were preschool age until the reached 21, and parents had to track their kids’ behavior based on certain tasks, including “playing with a single toy for long periods of time,” or “gives up easily” when a task or games got hard, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

“We were interested in identifying early predictors of later success,” Megan McClelland said. Megan is the early childhood research core director at OSU’s Hallie E. Ford Center for Healthy Children and Families, and a lead author on the study.

“We know that early academic skills predict later academic stills,” she said. “But the ability to pay attention and focus are foundational skills that help kids persist through difficult tasks when they need to.”

Although Megan insisted that academic skills are still important, and intellectual cabability is still a huge factor, she said there are a lot of smart kids who still have a hard time finishing tasks.

The study also tried to keep certain variables the same, including the child’s cognitive ability and vocabulary, and the parents’ education level.

Megan said that helping children learn the qualities of self-discipline is the most important thing parents and teachers can do to help kids focus and succeed. On suggestion was changing the rules of the game “red light, green light” so that red means go and green means stop.

“Kids ask me all the time, ‘Are you trying to trick me?’ I tell them, ‘No, we want you stop and think about what you’re doing first,’” she said.

What do YOU think of the study HollyMoms?

– Christina Stiehl

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Here’s some interesting news. Apparently kids, like 4-year-old Violet Affleck, aren’t having temper tantrums because they’re budding drama queens and kings. According to the Daily Mail, a new scientific study shows it’s natural for toddlers to put their own wants and needs first because their brains aren’t fully developed yet and they only know how to focus on themselves. Keep that in mind the next time your tyke has a meltdown while standing in the checkout line at the supermaket.

Neuroscientists from Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington D.C. studied the brains of 42 children and adults. They focused on the parts of the brain that are active when the mind is at rest, wandering, or daydreaming, which is known as the default-mode network, in scientific speak. These regions are key to understanding the wants and needs of others.

Study shows babies who cry may have behavioral problems later in life

What they found is that those sections of the brain in children between the ages of 6 and 9 didn’t respond simultaneously. They “lit up” at different times and didn’t start working together until the age of 13. Great… so just when our kids outgrow tantrums they’re going to enter into the terrible teens. How do you feel about that HollyMoms?

Did you know that roughhousing with your kids is good for them?

So the moral of this story is, the next time your kids go crazy because you won’t let them bring home that Great Dane they fell in love with at the pet store, just remember that they can’t help the fact that they’re raising holly hell kicking and screaming on the floor of the store, they were born that way — and it’ll pass in about a decade.

–Amy L. Harper

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If your child would rather be wrestling with your husband than calmly sitting next to you, you’re in luck. Research shows that when kids play around with their fathers, whether it be wrestling or using dad as a jungle gym, they are actually exercising their brains and bodies. Experts tell HollyBaby.com that it’s a great way for kids to bond with their parents while learning basic life skills — as long as it’s done in a super-safe way. So take a tip from celeb parents like Hugh Jackman, David Beckham, Jennifer Lopez and Gabriel Aubry and encourage your kids to get physical!

I know it sounds crazy, but when kids are flying around in mid-air they’re constantly shifting their body motions, which helps them to develop coordinated movement and is an essential life skill. Scientific studies have shown that roughhousing is also a great way to stimulate the release of certain growth elements in the cerebral cortex, which is an area of the brain that scientists refer to as the “social brain.”

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But, Dr. Gilda Carle warns that parents must make sure to keep their rough play from becoming too aggressive. “First, you have to know what your children can handle,” she tells HollyBaby.com, but that as long as the roughhousing doesn’t become too aggressive or competitive there can be many other social benefits. “It teaches good healthy play and educates on proper physical touch.”

Hugh Jackman loves to roughhouse with his kids

So, the next time your HollyHubby starts swinging the kids around, sit back, relax and take comfort in knowing that he’s helping to develop some super-awesome little people!

–Amy L. Harper

Get more HollyBaby news and gossip! Friend us on Facebook, Follow us on Twitter and Subscribe to our Newsletter!