Tips for establishing a healthy lifestyle before conception

Your life changes when you find out you're pregnant. Your lifestyle, however, does not have to wait to change until you conceive. When you decide that you're ready to add to your family, you should establish a healthy lifestyle as well. Eliminating unhealthy lifestyle choices and preparing your body for a potential pregnancy can put you on a healthy path as you try to conceive. Embrace a healthy lifestyle that you can carry into your pregnancy.

• Unhealthy behaviours and pregnancy do not go well together.
• Eliminating these behaviours before you conceive ensures that your body is a supportive and healthy environment for your baby as soon as he or she is conceived.
• Stop smoking now so that you have adjusted to a nicotine-free lifestyle by the time you become pregnant.
• During the weeks between ovulation and your period, avoid drinking alcohol in case you are pregnant.
• End any recreational drug use as well.
• These measures ensure that your body is well prepared for pregnancy.

• Maintaining a healthy weight and eating a balanced diet can prepare your body for a successful and healthy pregnancy.
• In fact, a team of doctors have identified specific foods that have the potential to improve your fertility and increase your chances of conception.
• Dubbed the fertility diet, a diet that focuses on vegetable protein, rather than animal protein, avoids trans fats, and replaces low-fat or no-fat dairy products with full-fat varieties can improve your chances of conception.
• This diet can be healthy for you before, during and after pregnancy as well.

• Meet with your obstetrician or midwife before you start trying to conceive to evaluate your reproductive health.
• Make sure you are up to date on your Pap smear to ensure your cervix is free of cancerous cells.
• Talk to your doctor about any medications you take to find out if they are compatible with pregnancy.
• Ask about taking a prenatal vitamin to ensure that you body has the nutrients it needs to allow your baby to thrive.
• Ask your doctor questions about trying to get pregnant. The information accrued in this appointment can put you on the right path to a healthy pregnancy.

While you cannot control precisely when you will get pregnant, you can control your health in the months or even years leading up to a pregnancy. Establish a healthy lifestyle today, and follow this lifestyle through your pregnancy and beyond.