Is It A Bad Idea To Try & Get Pregnant While Mercury Is In Retrograde?

Sometimes, it feels like you and your partner are talking over crossed wires. You can't seem to draft that email at work, your computer just crashed, and whoops, you accidentally hung up on your mother-in-law. Astrologically speaking, you're more likely to experience such interpersonal disasters when a certain planet appears to be traveling backwards in the night sky — Mercury is in retrograde. But does this affect everything? Should you try to get pregnant while Mercury is in retrograde? Or do you court chaos and disruption during some of the most difficult weeks of the year?

First off, let me reassure you with a vital statistic: over the course of human existence, billions of people have been conceived — and born — when the messenger planet was spinning its wheels. A great number of these people (The Washington Post astrologer Susan Miller is one) go on to lead incredibly happy, successful lives. However, no one could blame future moms for wanting the stars to align. Lunar fertility is astrology applied to pregnancy, conception, and birth, and you can read more about it on Insight Astrology. According to the site, astrologers agree that a baby is the result of a great number of factors — some cosmic and some not — and that no single planet or house will rule your pregnancy or your baby.

That said, don't be suprised if miscommunications with your partner cause the sort of comedy of errors that prevent you from having sex as much as you'd like: the mercury retrograde period is infamous for aggravating interpersonal relationships and throwing communication into disarray. If you connect with your partner despite the crazily-spinning planet, consider it a sign — and don't worry about your pregnancy.

But what is this retrograde, exactly?

According to the AstroTwins at AstroStyle, the planet that birthed the word mercurial — synonymous with unpredictability and volatility — will be causing trouble for about three weeks beginning Dec. 3, 2017. They advised avoiding political debates and double-checking holiday travel plans. Letters might get lost in the mail and arguments ensue. It's also a cosmically bad time to goad someone on Twitter (but really, isn't it always?).

Susan Miller, writing at Astro Zone, explained that decisions will be difficult to make in the next few weeks. Starting a new job is unwise, and fledgling relationships may hit their first rough spots. Additionally, loopholes may leap into legal documents right now, so you might hold off on closing on that house.

However, it's not all bad. "Mercury retrograde periods are like walking through glue, so they do tend to make us slow down, which at times can be a blessing," wrote Miller at Astro Zone.

If you're planning on a baby, you and your partner might just create an island of calm by focusing on what brought you together in the first place. A mercury retrograde is time to reminisce and review, so open the wedding album, or get nostalgic about how you first met. Should an argument ensue, practice laughing it off. After all, having a newborn is like having a backwards-running planet in your very own house —a veritable miscommunication machine.

Ultimately, you can't entirely control the process of conceiving, so don't let the solar system stress you out. "As the cliche goes, what you resist persists. So the more you can embrace chaos or a lack of control (and isn’t control an illusion, anyhow?), the better you’ll survive this cycle," wrote the Astro Twins. Conceiving a baby is an incredible convergence — of two people and of luck. Really, when all is said and done, what's a little Mercury when you're talking about new life?

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