Pre Pregnancy Planning


Pre pregnancy planning is something that you may be thinking about if you are trying to conceive. If you are, what are you planning for?

A bigger house? Planning the nursery? A bigger car? Planning the future of your career?

Don’t leave out the most important aspect of planning! Achieving optimal health with nutrition and exercise is vitally important.


Pre Pregnancy Planning


Besides nutrition during pregnancy, you should also be concerned with nutrition before pregnancy.

Why?

  • Better chance of conceiving if weight is under control

  • Less birth defects

  • Better hemoglobin (iron in blood) status during pregnancy

  • Reduced risk of hypertension

  • Reduced risk of gestational diabetes

  • Reduced risk for induced labor

  • Reduced risk for needing Caesarian secion

  • Better outcomes with breastfeeding

  • Your child will be at less of a risk for being overweight


The most important part of pregnancy is keeping your baby healthy and the safe arrival of your little one.

Pre pregnancy planning should include:

  • Getting adequate folic acid in your diet

  • Trying to get to a healthy weight

  • Starting or maintaining an exercise routine

  • Controlling diabetes before pregnancy

  • Controlling blood pressure

  • If you are vegetarian, taking a Vitamin B-12 supplement

  • Women with PKU should control their blood phenylalanine levels before pregnancy

Your diet pre pregnancy should be a part of your pre pregnancy planning, and should be a balanced diet with a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.

It is important that your diet include adequate iron. If your iron stores are low before getting pregnant, it can be harder to improve the iron level in your blood to where it should be during pregnancy.

If you are not currently exercising, start getting more physical activity! Start walking for 15 minutes a day and gradually increase. Or join a class at a local gym. Find something you enjoy and make small goals for yourself for increasing activity.

When the mother is obese, the child is at higher risk for physical problems such as neural tube defects and childhood obesity.





What if you are underweight?

You are at higher risk of your baby being prematurely born or having a low birth weight. Talk with your healthcare provider about whether you are at a healthy weight and if you need to gain weight before conceiving.

If you do need to gain weight, you should still be sure that your diet, pre pregnancy, is balanced and includes all of the nutrients you need.


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