Five Ways to Prepare for Pregnancy

It’s pretty exciting when you know you’re ready to start a family; and even more so when you start trying to conceive. A lot of thought and planning goes in to starting a family so it’s worth considering this list of things you can do to prepare for pregnancy. This sort of planning will reap benefits down the track and you’ll know you’ve done everything you possibly can to help things go smoothly.

Visit Your Doctor

Whether it’s your GP, or you’ve already got an obstetrician that you see, it’s worth having a check up to make sure that you’re good to go. You can also talk to your doctor about any concerns you have, and how to make any adjustments to ensure you have the healthiest pregnancy possible. Your doctor can give you advice on giving up smoking, cutting down drinking, and with losing weight.

Get Your Partner to Visit His Doctor

It’s not just you that needs to be healthy for baby-making – your partner does too. Given that he contributes half the ingredients, it’s just as important that he’s also in tiptop shape. There are lifestyle changes that can be made that help increase male fertility so make sure he checks in with his doctor and makes any changes to ensure he’s also in optimum shape.

Take A Vitamin

We’ve written before about the importance of taking a pre-natal vitamin, you can read that here. Combining a pre-natal vitamin with a healthy eating plan will ensure your body is working on all cylinders when you start trying to conceive. It’s best to take your prenatal vitamin three months before you start trying to conceive. This will ensure that there is plenty of folic acid in your system.

Stop Using Contraception

If you’re on the pill, have an IUD or other hormonal-based contraception, stop using it for at least three months before you try to get pregnant. Your doctor will give you a better idea of time-frames based on your individual circumstances. But allowing your body time to return to its natural cycle will improve your chances of conception.

Chart Your Cycle

It may seem odd to start charting your cycle before you’re actually ready to start trying, but if you chart your cycle for three months, when you’re ready to go, you’ll have a better understanding of when you are most fertile. It will also alert you to any possible issues.

Using the old-fashioned basal body temperature technique is simple and straight forward and will help you pin point your ovulation within a couple of months. It will also show you if you’re not ovulating, so it offers valuable information for your conception journey. Here’s our handy guide to charting your cycle.

Once you’re ready, and you’ve done all you can to prepare, there’s only thing left to do… yep, jump in to bed and go wild!

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