Embracing a healthy lifestyle is one of the fundamental ways to truly take charge of your pre-pregnancy planning process.
Reduce Stress
Stress can cause irregular ovulation and can disrupt your menstrual cycle — affecting your overall fertility. If you take just a few deliberate measures, it'll go far in helping to reduce stress daily.
- Get plenty of sleep
- Spend time with enjoyable relationships
- Listen to music, meditate, renew a calming hobby such as knitting, scrapbooking or reading
Nutritional Needs
What you eat — and decide not to eat — at this time is perhaps the single greatest advantage you can give yourself in preparing to get pregnant. Now is the time to follow through on a commitment to eating better. Many key vitamins and minerals are required in greater amounts to meet your increased nutritional needs and those of your growing baby.
- Follow a well-balanced diet containing food from all of the major food groups.
- Begin taking a high-quality, high-potency prenatal vitamin containing folic acid and iron and continue throughout your entire pregnancy to ensure that you get the added nutrition necessary for mother and baby. This will help reduce your risk of nutrient deficiency.
- Don't diet, either to gain or lose weight, because this may affect your reproductive cycle.
Key Nutrients During Pregnancy
Begin taking these nutrients now before you conceive:
Folic Acid
0.4 milligrams of folic acid daily are recommended. Folic acid has been found to be instrumental in helping to prevent neural tube defects (NTDs), which often develop before a woman knows she is pregnant. It is essential that an adequate intake of folic acid be maintained throughout your childbearing years.
Iron
Iron is essential for making red blood cells and preventing anemia and fatigue. Make sure to choose a prenatal vitamin with a tolerable form of iron to reduce the possibility of constipation, bloating, and nausea.
DHA
DHA has been linked to many benefits — a healthy heart in moms, improved vision and, best of all, greater mental development in babies. It's also been shown to increase the length of gestation, helping more babies get their full nine months.
Exercise
Pregnancy is a marathon. Adopting a regular exercise routine now will help you develop the strength and endurance needed down the road. You'll thank yourself later. Regular exercise will help you:
- Carry the extra weight easier during pregnancy
- Feel less tired and fatigued
- Sleep well
- Reduce muscle and joint pain
- Improve your mental well-being
- Improve posture
- Prevent unnecessary weight gain
- Ease the physical stress of delivery
- Get back in shape faster after the baby is born
Cut it Out
Use this time as motivation to eliminate unhealthy habits from your lifestyle such as alcohol consumption, smoking, and any illegal drugs. Also, if necessary, why not begin weaning yourself from caffeine because once you become pregnant, your doctor may ask you to eliminate it altogether.
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