6 Things to Know Before Getting Pregnant

Deciding to have a child is the biggest decision you will ever make. It is a great joy and a great responsibility too. The better you plan your pregnancy, the easier you will go through it. Here are 6 things you should know before getting pregnant.

1. Schedule a Visit to Your Gynecologist

As soon as you decide to start working on having a baby, you should schedule a visit to your gynecologist. Even though you might not have any problems or reasons to go, consider this something you must do.

Tell your gynecologist that you are planning to have a baby and ask for advice. Your doctor will inform you about everything you need to know and all the possible tests you should take. You will also be advised to take prenatal vitamins. This can be of huge help to conceive.

2. Stop Drinking, Smoking or Using Drugs

pregnant woman quits smoking

If you want to conceive and have a healthy baby, you should cut out using alcohol, cigarettes and drugs. If you can’t do this on your own, seek help. Remember that substance abuse can be very harmful to your baby, so do your best to quit.

Don’t listen to people who claim to know a lot of mothers who drank and smoked during their pregnancies and still gave birth to perfectly healthy babies. Even though that can happen, I wouldn’t push my luck. Better safe than sorry. If you are under any strict medical treatment, seek advice from your doctor.

3. Start a Healthy Diet

In order to increase your chances to conceive and in order to have an easier pregnancy, make some changes in your diet. Empty your fridge of anything too greasy, too spicy and too sugary. Fill it with fresh fruits and vegetables and lots of milk.

You need more vitamins during your pregnancy so you should increase the daily intake. Try to get vitamins from fresh fruit and vegetables rather than from vitamin pills. Increase the consumption of dairy products, because your baby will need as much calcium as possible to develop healthy bones. Increase the amount of vitamin B, selenium and folic acids. You will need to take folic acid pills. Seek advice from your doctor for this.

4. Cut Down on Caffeine

If you can’t give up coffee completely, at least try to cut down on it, because caffeine consumption can increase chances of having a miscarriage. You will not only need to watch out how much coffee you drink, but you will also have to pay attention to the amount of tea, soda, energy drinks and even some pain killers.

Green and black tea contain a high amount of caffeine so it would be a better idea to drink herbal tea before pregnancy as well as during. I would suggest that you completely forget about any kind of energy drinks, because they not only contain caffeine, but also a lot of other bad stuff. Start reading labels on your medication and try to avoid all those that contain caffeine.

5. Reduce Stress

Stress could be your worst enemy when trying to conceive as well as during pregnancy. Do your best to reduce your stress levels to a minimum.

Try to avoid people and situations that annoy you. Of course, you can’t really get away from all that, but you can do something to be less nervous. Start a yoga class or learn how to meditate. Book a relaxing massage or take long walks in the nature. Find anything that relaxes you and do it.

6. Catch Some Sleep

Pregnant woman sleeping in bed

It is generally very important to be well rested. It is even more important when you are trying to get pregnant. Lack of sleep can be one of the factors when having troubles with conception. Try to sleep 8 hours every day and try to rest as much as possible.

Of course, you can’t just lie down and do nothing, that wouldn’t be good for you anyway. Still, try not to rush. Organize yourself and your time better; learning how to do that will come in handy once the baby arrives, because you will find yourself having no time for anything but the baby. Start learning to organize before the baby comes and increase your chances of being less stressed out when it does.

About the author

Sarah

I’m a free spirit who likes to travel, cook and fly. Licensed paraglider pilot, I spend all my spare time flying. In the meantime, I like to share my recipes and travel experiences.

1 Comment

Click here to post a comment