subject: How to Prepare Your Body for Pregnancy [print this page] How to Prepare Your Body for Pregnancy How to Prepare Your Body for Pregnancy
You and your beloved have decided, and emotionally, you're set to have a baby. Physically, though, you've got some preparations to do, regardless of who you are. Here are tips to get your body ready.
1. Get a prenatal examination at least six months to a year before you plan to get pregnant. It may take some time to achieve the goals your doctor charts for you, like losing or gaining weight. Anticipate a rather routine physical, which may include a Pap smear and a breast exam. Your doctor will likely take a medical history and extract blood to check your resistance to illnesses like rubella, chicken pox and hepatitis B, which are known causes of birth defects, and vaccinate you if necessary. If you have a pre-existing health condition or are taking any medications, inquire from your doctor how this might affect your pregnancy.
2. Stop all of your vices. Preliminary studies advocate that smoking and drinking hinder ovulation. For your husband, they can affect the production of sperm. And once you have conceived, the figures are more irrefutable. Both smoking and alcohol consumption amplify the risk of miscarriage, low birth weight, birth defects, and other problems.
3. Get to your ideal weight. Women who are at least 35 percent above their ideal weight are more prone to have very large infants, which normally leads to difficult labor and delivery. A research showed that women who weigh between 176 and 195 pounds before conception were two times more likely to give birth to infants with neural tube defects (NTDs) than women weighing 110 to 130 pounds. , On the other hand, women who are less than 85 percent of their ideal weight have a higher frequency of barrenness. So a woman who weighs 102 but should weigh 20 pounds heavier may have a difficult time conceiving. When underweight women get pregnant, they are more apt to have underweight offspring.
4. Eat a well-balanced diet. It is far easier to establish a good nutrition pattern before you conceive than when you are pregnant and decide to stop eating junk food.
5. Exercise regularly. You want to prepare your body for labor with exercises that strengthen your heart and tone your muscles.
6. Take your vitamins daily. Just 0.4 milligrams (mg) of vitamin B folic acid each day will decrease the risk of NTDs by 50 percent. If you don't eat a diet rich in folic acid such as spinach, broccoli, dried beans, orange juice and oatmeal, take a multivitamin that has the recommended 0.4 mg. Start about three months prior to pregnancy to build up a good supply in your system before conception. But take only in prescribed amounts. Some can be toxic in high doses.
