Planning for Pregnancy: What you should do

Congratulations, you’re one step closer to meeting your new baby. The first step involved in making a baby is conceiving the idea of bringing that new life into this world. If you’re reading this, I suspect that you’re in the phase where you’re currently thinking about your fertility, while simultaneously planning your pregnancy and postpartum period. I could not be happier or any more excited for you than I am in this moment.

So you have decided it’s time for a baby, are these some of the questions you find that you’ve been asking yourself? Can I just go ahead and get pregnant? What can I do to support my fertility? What do I need to do to get pregnant? What should I do to prepare my body for pregnancy? Am I even ready to have a baby yet? These are all wonderful questions to be asking yourself before trying to conceive, and I am here today to help break down some important steps that I believe are important to address and consider before trying to conceive.

1. Talk to your partner about your needs and wants prior to pregnancy

When I started my fertility journey, I knew that there was some birth and postpartum planning that would be involved, but never thought about having a discussion with my husband about what my needs and wants would be throughout the whole process!

I highly recommend you take the time to sit down with your partner before trying to conceive so that you can make sure you’re both on the same page (or at least able to have healthy discussion on subjects you may not agree on at the moment) before you jump into bed. The reason behind this is simple.

On one hand, it can be really easy for you to become pregnant, and having these conversations can sometimes be really hard. It’s really important to know that are you able to have these types of conversations before the deed is done – there’s no going back once the seed has been planted!

On the other hand, you may have issues with infertility and that can cause another slew of difficulties within your relationship.

So my advice is this, take the time to talk to your partner ahead of starting your fertility journey. I am currently working on putting together a beautiful guide with questions and discussions you should have with your partner before becoming pregnant, so stay tuned for that!

2. Eat to support your body and your womb before starting your fertility journey

Awh yes, this may be the reason you stubbled onto my page, isn’t it? Like you, it was my goal to prepare my body for pregnancy in every way I knew how to, and that included supporting my body and mind through the foods I would eat!

Part of my journey while planning for pregnancy included removing the foods that I knew didn’t react well with my body and adding more of the foods that I knew would give me loads of nutrients. I ate pretty well prior to trying to conceive, but upped my food and supplement game for 3 months prior to even trying to conceive to help optimize egg health, my hormones and my digestion – ultimately, supporting my fertility as much as possible.

PS. I host a bi-annual workshop where I discuss the foundations to supporting fertility, you can find more information on that here. I also have personalized, one-on-one fertility nutrition programs available if this is more up your alley, this fertility programs page has more details breaking down what is involved! Planning for pregnancy doesn’t have to be hard or scary, and I’m here to help you along the way 🙂

3. Reduce exposure to chemicals and toxins when planning for pregnancy

One of the more challenging things I had to do while planning for pregnancy, and tends to be the case for most individuals, is to reduce exposure to chemicals and toxins. These substances can be found in so many of our skin care, cleaning and food products, and even though they may be small exposures, they do have the ability to accumulate and cause harm to our little ones.

On top of ensuring exposure is limited, it’s also important to do what we can to support detoxification through all elimination pathways by means of food, movement and supplementation.

When it comes time to supporting my fertility in time for my second baby, I will be doing the same as I did before. In addition, I will be adding support from red light therapy and the use of my Heat Healer sauna blanket (I have an affiliate code which offers 15% off, yay! If you’ve been on the market, use code VIVELIFE)

4. Stop drinking alcohol, smoking and doing recreational drugs

Yup, cut it out. If you’re planning for pregnancy, you want to support and fuel your body as much as possible, so cut it out. It takes 3 months for eggs to mature into healthy, viable oocytes, so for a minimum of 3 months, I recommend being strict on this one to help improve your odds of making healthy eggs, therefore, supporting fertility and your pregnancy!

Alcohol, smoking and recreational drugs have the ability to negatively affect fertility and even pregnancy, so best to remove them earlier on so you can best support your body in creating a healthy environment  for your future baby to grow and develop.

5. Get mentally healthy

Often times overlooked is the state of our mental health. Our mental state during pregnancy has the ability to imprint onto our baby – so best to get things in order ahead of time!

Another reason we should address our mental health, especially in the early stages of planning for pregnancy is because, let’s be honest, the fertility journey and pregnancy experience can sometimes be challenging. Finding healthy ways to cope with our stress can help us tremendously.

This is one of the categories where I will be putting a lot of time and attention to while I prepare my body for my second pregnancy. Finding balance in my nervous system will not only help me lower physical and emotional stress, it will help me heal my body! By having a good handle on my nervous system and how well I cope with stress (and let’s face it, my changing hormones), the better I will be able to navigate this phase of my life.

6. Have a support system in place or find one.

Alright, alright, alright… This seems pretty obvious, right? Or, maybe it’s not… Going into my first pregnancy, I never really took the time to think about it – I figured things would just work out the way they would work out. In my case, they did work out due to my stubbornnes and my ability to make things work even when they don’t!

What needs to be said here is that there is something to be said about having something of a game plan in place. It helps to ease the mind and allows us to go into pregnancy or birth knowing we have people or resources available to us should we need them. Ease of mind is your friend.

A few things to consider include: having food prepared and frozen for postpartum, having a food train ready to go once baby comes if meal prepping isn’t your thing, knowing who and how your house will be maintained postpartum, determining who will be coming to stay (or not) after baby is born…

In a healthcare professional sense: maybe you want to have a doula present to support you, a lactation consultant to help establish breastfeeding, friends to hold your hand and help with chores?

Most impartantly, if your partner is in the picture, you must focus on maintaining open communication, in a respectful manner, and know how to ask for what you need. It takes a village to raise a young one, and that village starts in your home.

7. Make sure you have enough room, make enough money and everything is perfect before trying to conceive

I’m just kidding, you don’t need any of those things…

No one is every truly ready to have kids but you can take steps to help you feel more comfortable throughout the process. You can take steps like optimizing your fertility through nutrition, removing toxins and getting mentally healthy, but it’s never going to be perfect.

What your baby needs is a safe bed and environment to sleep in. They don’t need the latest trendy strollers, room decors and baby clothes.

The other thing that they truly need is you. You, in as good a place as you can be. That’s where everything we just talked about comes into play.

Does it feel like the right time to get pregnant? If so, then go for it!

Just note that the steps I listed above are worth diving into for an easier fertility journey, pregnancy an postpartum experience.

If you have any questions about your fertility journey, no matter where you find yourself, feel free to send me an email or schedule a free discovery call to discuss how I might be able to support you.

All the best,

Veronique.