For centuries some women have sworn that they knew the exact moment that they became pregnant. Is it possible to feel the conception of a child in your body?

Well, no and yes.

I’m not trying to confuse you, let me explain.

The simple answer to the question is “no”, a woman cannot feel the actual fertilization of her egg by her partners sperm. This happens deep inside the fallopian tubes and on a microscopic level. However, there are other things happening in her body that she might be aware of.

The first is ovulation. Ovulation is when the mature egg burst from the ovary and begins its journey to the uterus. Some women have reported experiencing odd pains in her lower abdomen during ovulation. The medical term for this is mittelschmertz, German for “middle pain.” It is so named because women complain of this pain near the ‘middle’ of her menstrual cycle in the ‘middle’ of her body. This pain can be a dull ache or a sharp, shooting pains that usually only last for a few hours. Women are usually diagnosed with mittelschmertz when they are complaining of abdominal or pelvic pain near the time that she should be ovulating and a physical examination reveals nothing abnormal. Mittelschmertz can sometimes be confused with something more severe (most commonly appendicitis) so if it persists, seek medical advice.

Another anomaly that could be confused with conception is implantation bleeding. This occurs when the fertilized egg, or a blastocyst, attaches itself to the uterine lining. Sometimes women will experience some light, pink spotting during this time. This also should last for a very short time.

It is also possible to know which act of intimacy resulted in pregnancy. If a couple is actively trying to get pregnant, the woman might know exactly when she was fertile and be able to deduce just which intercourse was magical in more ways than one. But it’s important to remember that sperm can live inside a woman for up to three days, so it’s possible that fertilization occurred several hours or even days later. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, so after she knows that she is in fact really pregnant, it is usually pretty simple to determine when the magical moment occurred.

Then again, maybe—just maybe, there are women that know on a cosmic or spiritual level that she and her partner have created a life. Just because there is no scientific proof, doesn’t necessarily mean that it is impossible. Making a baby is such a miraculous thing in itself, I guess anything is possible, especially if you really believe it. If a woman really thinks that she felt a new person sparking to life deep within her body, then maybe she did.