3 Things to do before you start your Family
As females we often spend many years trying not to get pregnant, so preparing for a healthy pregnancy and baby can be unknown territory. Preconception care includes addressing your diet, lifestyle, activity levels and your mental and emotional health to create a plan that will help you to feel at your most healthy and balanced. When you focus on preconception care for 3-6 months before falling pregnant, you positively impact not just your fertility, pregnancy and wellbeing, but also that of your baby and their babies too!
1) Come off The Pill
This may sound like a no brainer, but if you have been taking the Oral Contraceptive Pill for years, it is not uncommon for it to take up to 6 months to re-establish your menstrual cycle. This is because when you take the pill, you don’t actually have a “period”, but rather a withdrawal bleed. It can take some time for your body to begin ovulating again when you stop taking the pill.
2) Track your Cycle
Just because you get a period, doesn’t mean you are ovulating (the essential thing for falling pregnant). We get all of our patients to track their cycle and do Basal Body Temperature tracking where you measure your temperature each morning upon waking to understand if and when you are ovulating AKA your fertile window! We often use FertilityFriend but good old fashioned pen and paper are fine too.
3) Assess your Stress & Sleep
The effect of stress and lack of sleep on fertility cannot be overstated. Now is the time to pay attention to how much sleep you get, the quality of that sleep, your stress and anxiety levels along with “your perception of pressure and urgency” as Dr Libby would say.
If you are regularly sleeping less than 7hrs a night, waking in the middle of the night unable to get back to sleep, spending much of your time feeling worried or going a million miles an hour then you need to work with a health professional to address this. Simple strategies applied often can turn your sleep, stress and fertility around!
If you are ready to begin your preconception journey then we’d love to help you get started book now with our Womens Health Acupuncturists, Naturopaths and Nutritionists.