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Preparing For Pregnancy
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By taking care of your body in the preconception phase, you'll not only up your chances to conceive, you'll also be passing on health benefits to your baby.
Yes, lifestyle choices directly impact the success of your efforts in getting pregnant, staying pregnant, and the health of your baby when you get pregnant.
Pregnancy is an eventful journey, you'll have to be prepared for it physically and emotionally.
In preparing your body for pregnancy, you'll have to change or moderate certain lifestyle factors such as, your diet and attitude towards smoking, drinking, work, leisure, exercise, and stress.
This is the best time to take care of your body. Now, before you get pregnant. And the earlier the better to prevent future problems for you won't know when you'll be pregnant. Cos' by the time you realize you're pregnant, you would have missed opportunities to enhance your baby's health. However, by consciously preparing for pregnancy through healthier lifestyle choices, you would have built, fortified and prepared your body to carry a healthy pregnancy and deliver a healthy baby.
Here are some simple guidelines that you can follow in preparing for pregnancy:
- Manage your diet
- Manage your indulgences
- Cut off harmful habits
- Adopt healthier lifestyle choices
This doesn't sound fun isn't it? Almost a kill-joy... but the good news is, you don't have to live miserably to maintain a healthy lifestyle!
The key to all these dietary and lifestyle changes is balance.
You don't have to be a health nut while preparing for pregnancy. You don't have to wean yourself completely off food that you crave. You just have to consciously manage your transition and try to make better choices most of the time.
There is no one dietary plan that'll suit everybody, but you get to decide on what works for you and what changes you can successfully incorporate into your life.
It is important to emphasize here that if you have a pre-existing medical condition, you should consult with your dietician for personalised advice.
The general guidelines towards a healthier lifestyle are as follows:
- Healthy Diet and Nutrition
- Managing Your Indulgences
- Cutting Off Harmful Habits
As you plan to get pregnant, make it conducive for your body to do so by adopting some healthier lifestyle choices. Pay attention to the following:
- Exercise
If you've never really get to exercise, do so now. It actually helps boosts your fertility. Start in small ways, like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, walk as much as you can instead of using a transport. Then incorporate more exercise routines progressively but set realistic goals for what you want to achieve. Do you want to lose weight, gain weight or build up your muscle? Some interesting exercise options include swimming, bicycling, and aerobics. Some prefer Yoga because it incorporates posture, breathing, and concentration which will be beneficial to you during labor. Make your exercises fun.
- Watch your weight
It is important to maintain a consistent and healthy weight and avoid significant fluctuations. Refrain from pursuing any new and fanciful fad diets when you're preparing for pregnancy. Avoid being overweight or underweight so as not to compromise your fertility.
What is the ideal weight for you? A good guide is the Body Mass Index (BMI). You can find out your ideal BMI from this source at the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (USA).
- Stress Management
You've heard that a little stress and anxiety is good for you, to give you the extra boost you need to achieve a target, pass an examination, get that promotion.
If you're preparing for pregnancy, stress is not your friend. It has been linked to delayed or missed periods which cause difficulty in ovulation and thwart your efforts to get pregnant.
Learn to relax. I know it's easier said than done. But you've got to start to slow down a little, enjoy a warm bath, listen to soft music and try to get lots of sleep. Your body is more receptive to conception when it is not tensed up.
Count your costs, if you're preparing for pregnancy, this is really not the time to contend for that promotion if you're already stretched by your existing workload.
Other important aspects when preparing to get pregnant are as follows:
- Being a vegetarian and getting pregnant.
- A mens responsibility when women are preparing for pregnancy.
- The right perspective to prepare yourself mentally and physically.
The two keywords to bear in mind while preparing for pregnancy are these: diet and lifestyle. Healthy diet and wise lifestyle choices will make you stronger and more capable of conceiving.
When you do become pregnant, the benefits from a healthy lifestyle will be felt during pregnancy and passed on to your baby.
On the other hand, if you're still childless and decide to opt for infertility treatment, you would have sufficiently built up strength in your body to go through repeated cycles of treatment.
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