Preparing for Pregnancy

Everybody know that when you're pregnant, you have to take extra care of yourself (and baby!) by eating better and exercising, stopping smoking and drinking, and staying away from certain activities, but some people don't stop to think about how their current lifestyle can affect their fertility!

If you are reading this article, chances are you're either already trying to conceive or you're thinking about it and are trying to find out the best way to go about starting this sometimes long and stressful journey. If you've already given up your preferred method of birth control, have given your body time to recuperate afterwards (this time can vary due to contraceptive type and, with the patch, body size as larger women may retain oestrogen in adipose tissue), and you're having plenty of sex, which is all most healthy, fertile couples need to do, as this will eventually work, then its time to prepare your body to give your future pregnancy the best possible start. So how exactly does one do this? Let's find out...

Weight can be a huge factor of a woman's fertility or lack thereof. Whether you are overweight or underweight, your size could be an inhibitor when you're trying to get pregnant. As cliche as it sounds, if a woman doesn't have a healthy BMI, she may not be ovulating and, obviously, where there is no egg, there will be no baby. Before you decide to try for a baby, you should really try to get your weight to within a healthy range if it's not already. It's not only better for you physically to carry a baby while at a healthier weight, it may be the key point in ovulation and conception. So, if you need to gain or lose, the sooner, the better! Don't use faddy or crash diets when losing, though...slow is best! Not only will you be more likely to keep the weight off, but sometimes even just a few pounds may trigger an anovulatory woman to begin ovulating again, so it is worth the time and effort!

If you are a smoker or a drinker, you may not realize that you may be decreasing your chance of conception. It is best to put down the cigarettes and the pint when trying for a baby...that goes for your partner as well! It was shown in a recent study in London that a woman who smokes can decrease her chance of conception in any cycle by up to 40%. Consider with that the fact you only have about a 25% chance or less of conceiving in any month and that chops the chance nearly in half! If your partner also smokes, your chances will further decrease, if he smokes more than 4 a day and even further if he smokes double that or more. The more he smokes, the better the chances are that his sperm are being choked of life and will not be able to fertilize an egg; that is, if it even manages to make it past the well-guarded fortress that is the vagina and cervix. I once read that of the many millions of sperm which are released upon ejaculation, only about 200 manage to make it through all the way to the fallopian tubes. If your partner's swimmers aren't up to par, you may have even fewer reaching the final, and oh so important, destination, and the ones that do make it, up to 2/3 of them may not be strong enough to penetrate the ovum in order to fertilize the waiting egg. Alcohol will have similar impairments on your ovum and on your partner's sperm, causing deformities in DNA, low motility and a generally reduced chance of viable pregnancy. The best way to combat these problems (and the possibility of the many noted birth defects and miscarriage sometimes caused by drinking and smoking) is to simply stop smoking and/or drinking as soon as possible. For your partner, you must remember it takes around 3 months for sperm to grow to maturity, so the affect won't be immediate. Perhaps if you 'remind' him that smoking is known to have caused hundreds of thousands of cases of impotence, this will coax him along!

Some things you should be doing now in order to make your body as hospitable as possible for a growing baby include taking folic acid (a supplement known for helping brain development), a pre/pro-natal vitamin (or a multivitamin that does NOT contain Vitamin A, as this is known to cause birth defects!), eating plenty of fresh, preferably organic, fruits and vegetables, exercising (but not TOO vigorously! If you're worried the type of activities you already do may cause any problem, speak to your doctor or midwife.) and drinking plenty of water. You should also be avoiding caffeine as much as possible. There are contradictory studies showing effects of caffeine in pregnancy and during conception, but it's best to just not over-do it. However, keep in mind that another study in London showed that consuming small amounts of the 'good' chocolate (you know, the stuff which is 65% or higher in cocoa solids) actually reduced the risk of miscarriage, so leave a bit of your caffeine intake for some fair trade or organic dark chocolate! You should also be following a diet similar to that of one you would follow during pregnancy, avoiding all the usual suspects of listeria and salmonella (such as raw or undercooked meats, soft and blue cheeses, raw or undercooked eggs), foods high in Vitamin A (such as liver and liver-containing foods, such as pates), unpasteurized milk, and raw shellfish. Do eat a diet rich in foods loaded with antioxidants, Vitamin C and Vitamin E, as these each play significant roles in fertility. Feed your partner the same foods and you may see a boosted sperm count and better swimmers.

A couple other, seemingly random things to consider to help combat infertility include temperature and bike seats. If a man's testicles are exposed to excessive heat, he will temporarily kill off at least some of healthy sperm, so urge your partner to wear boxers and to avoid over-heated places, like saunas and hot tubs. If your man is a cycler, he may want to reconsider the type of seat on his bike. If he bikes for more than 3 hours at a time, this may cause damage to arteries and nerves which can lead to erectile problems, so change that seat and have regular breaks!

I know this may be a lot of information for some people, especially for those to whom trying to conceive is a new thing, whether you're planning your first baby or this is just the first time you've actually made the conscious decision to try for a baby, but I hope you find it a useful start on your journey to conception!