Start Taking Whatever Vitamin Supplements You May Need
The most obvious one is folic acid. You should start taking this one month before conception and continue taking it for the first three months of pregnancy. When taken correctly, folic acid may help reduce the risk of spina bifida in unborn babies. Other vitamin supplements for Mum include:
- Iodine beneficial for your babys brain, visual, motor skills and hearing development
- Iron that extra little person can drain your reserves and can lead to tiredness
- Fish oil
- Vitamin D3
Look for a pregnancy multi-vitamin supplement that contains essential vitamins plus a fish oil.
So thats the egg part of the equation, what about the sperm? Supplements beneficial for mens fertility include:
- Ubiquinol helps protect sperm cells from damage
- Conenzyme Q10 to support sperm cell energy and motility
- Zinc plays an essential role in male reproductive health
- Selenium essential for normal sperm production
- Vitamin D associated with sperm motility
Keep an eye out for a mens multi-vitamin that contains the above supplements.
Second Trimester Pregnancy Checklist
The second trimester officially begins in the 14th week of pregnancy. The great part about your second trimester is that youll have more energy and less morning sickness. Thats why this is a great time to mark lots of things off your pregnancy checklist!Of course, your growing baby belly will become much more noticeable during this trimester. As your uterus expands, the surrounding ligaments are stretched, which can cause abdominal aches called round ligament pain.Your belly might also push up on your lungs, causing you to feel a bit out of breath at times. You may notice heartburn, constipation, swelling in your ankles or feet, and back pain, too.As the second half of your pregnancy rolls around, dont stress about all the things you need to do to get ready for your new baby! This second-trimester pregnancy checklist will help you stay on top of your to-dos.
Talk To Your Gynecologist
Before you start trying to get pregnant, visit your gynecologist. Its ideal to schedule a preconception visit three to six months before your planned pregnancy. This gives you enough time to make any health improvements and lifestyle adjustments and complete any testing that may be recommended.
Here is a list of preconception tests a health care provider may suggest:
Your health care provider will also ask about your general lifestyle. They may suggest making a few changes to ensure a healthy pregnancy. This is the perfect time to ask any questions you might have about fertility and getting pregnant.
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First Trimester Pregnancy Checklist
Other than that special pregnancy glow, most people wont even notice that youre pregnant during your first trimester. But you will! First of all, youll probably feel extra tired. This is due to hormonal changes, lower blood sugar and blood pressure, and the emotional rollercoaster of learning that youre expecting a baby!Another common symptom in the first trimester is morning sickness. The bright side is that it usually goes away at the end of this trimester. Last but not least, your breasts will grow and may be tender.
The first trimester is perhaps the most exciting time of a pregnancy, especially if its your first baby. Theres a long list of things to be done, but its definitely manageable! To help you get started, heres a checklist for the first three months.
Consider Choosing Organic Food
Certain environmental toxins may stay in your system and endanger your developing baby, says Dr. Potter. “To avoid pesticides, buy organic food or make sure to wash fruits and vegetables with mild soap.” Inhaling certain solvents, paints, and household cleaners have also been shown to cause birth defects and increase miscarriage risk, so make sure your home and workplace are well ventilated.
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Ask For Testing Or A Referral
According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, if you’ve been trying to get pregnant for more than a year, even if you have no other symptoms of infertility, you should talk to your doctor about having fertility testing done. If you’re over 35 and have been trying for at least six months, you are 40 years old or older, or if at any age you have a condition known to cause infertility, you will need to have prompt testing and treatment.
Most doctors will take your concerns seriously and either start testing or refer you to a fertility specialist, but not all doctors are willing to take action when they should. You might be told that you are “too young” for infertility and that you need to try to get pregnant for longer than a year. Some people are told that they are overweight and therefore need to lose weight to conceive and to only return to their doctor if weight loss doesn’t help them get pregnant.
The problem with putting off testing is that some causes of infertility worsen over timeeven when you’re young. You can still decide to lose weight or try a little longer to get pregnant after you have had testing.
Write A List Of Your Questions
Making a list of your concerns, symptoms, and questions before your appointment can be a big help. Good reasons to write it down include:
- Having your questions in front of you as a prompt can be easier than trying to gather your thoughts or come up with your questions off the top of your head.
- If you are anxious about verbalizing your concerns or questions, it might be easier to hand your provider a list to read instead .
- You’re less likely to forget what you wanted to say or ask.
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Think Before You Drink
Sorry, those brunch mimosas might have to wait. “Alcohol raises your future child’s risk of physical and mental disabilities, so cut out drinking once you’re actively trying to conceive,” says Mary Jane Minkin, M.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Yale School of Medicine. Before then, the occasional glass shouldn’t harm an eventual pregnancy, though two-or more-a day is a different story. Heavy drinking may increase your estrogen levels, which can cause irregular menstrual cycles and deplete your body of folic acida nutrient that helps prevent major birth defects to a baby’s brain and spine.
Look For A Fertility Clinic
If basic fertility treatment isn’t successful, or if your test results suggest treatments that go beyond your gynecologist’s purview, they may refer you to a fertility specialist or fertility clinic. Because your fertility treatment likely won’t be covered by insurance, focus your search for a doctor or clinic on finding the best possible care that you can afford.
When you begin researching fertility clinics, make certain you’re clear on how much the initial consultation will cost. Discuss fees ahead of time if you decide to move forward with treatment. Remember to factor in travel and lost work time if you’re considering a clinic that’s not close by. Many treatments require frequent visits.
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Stock Up On Some Great Dvd Box Sets
More lists. Make a list of all the TV series you still havent gotten round to and have them ready for all those cosy nights in with baby, midnight breastfeeding sessions or just something to kick-start your brain when all that breastfeeding makes you a bit woolly-headed. It will also be something to look forward to during the hibernation period that goes with having small children.
Try these American dramas:
- Orange is the New Black
- House of Cards
- Wentworth
- Utopia
A lot of people also swear by this Danish series if you can handle subtitles :
- Borgen
How Often To Have Sexual Intercourse
To give yourselves the best chance of success, try to have sex every two to three days. If you are under psychological stress, it can affect your relationship and is likely to reduce your sex drive.
If this means you do not have sex as often as usual, this may also affect you or your partners chances of getting pregnant.
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Try To Conceive Again
How long does it take to get pregnant? Data shows that more than half of couples conceive by 6 months, and about 85 percent conceive within one year. If you don’t have a positive pregnancy test this time around, reconsider your efforts. It’s possible that you miscalculated your most fertile days, so your partner’s sperm never had the chance to fertilize your egg. Consider switching to a daily OPK if you haven’t already tried it, and get psyched to try again next month!
Consider Your Working Environment
If you think that your job may pose a risk to a pregnancy then ideally you should discuss this with your employer before becoming pregnant. Certain jobs and workplaces may pose a risk to a pregnancy, in particular to the early stages of pregnancy. For example:
- If you work with raw meat. Raw meat is sometimes contaminated with germs, such as listeria and toxoplasma. If these germs infect adults, they may cause listeriosis or toxoplasmosis, but may cause little harm. However, these germs can cause serious problems to your unborn child if you become infected when you are pregnant.
- If you work with certain animals. For example:
- You should avoid contact with sheep and lambs at lambing time. This is because some lambs are born contaminated with germs such as listeria, toxoplasma and chlamydia, which may affect you and your unborn baby.
- Cats and kittens often carry toxoplasma germs – especially in cat poo . So, cleaning out cat litter trays and handling cats and kittens can be a risk.
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Get A Preconception Checkup
Before you officially start trying, get a checkup. Ask your doctor aboutprenatal vitaminsthat havefolic acid, which helps protect against some birth defects, such asspina bifida. Folic acid works during the early stages of pregnancy, so that’s why it’s important to make sure you’re getting enough folic acid even before you get pregnant.
“Do this the cycle before you start trying,” says Paula Hillard, MD, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford University. “If you have any underlying medical problems, they need to be under control before you can safely become pregnant.”
Day : Track Your Cycle
Whether youve been on birth control or not, nows the time to get intimate with your menstrual cycle. Narrowing down the window of when youre most fertile will help you get pregnant faster.
Plus, having an understanding of your cycles will help you discover if anything is off and might need addressing .
Start by simply recording when your period starts and ends to see how the length of your cycle changes from month to month. You can note anything like irregular bleeding and spotting, too. The average menstrual cycle length is around 28 days, but it can range from 21 to 35 days and still fall in the normal, healthy range. There are many apps out there to help you with tracking as well.
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Figure Out The Best Time To Conceive
Are you wondering, “When is the best time to get pregnant?” No matter how often you have sex, if you skip the most fertile days of the month, you won’t conceive. “The biggest mistake my patients make is not knowing exactly when they ovulate,” says Dr. Williams.
Most doctors recommend using ovulation predictor kits to measure ovulation. These work by detecting a surge in luteinizing hormone in your urine, which occurs about 36 to 48 hours before you ovulate. OPKs let you plan baby-making sex when you’re the most fertile.
Other ways to track ovulation include charting your basal body temperature, monitoring your cervical mucus, and tracking your menstrual cycle. Learn more about ovulation tracking methods here they can help you get pregnant fast and easy.
Planning For Your Pregnancy
If you are thinking about pregnancy, visit your doctor for a preconception consult. They will provide you with expert advice on planning your pregnancy.
The preconception period is the time to make life changes that can help boost fertility, reduce problems during pregnancy and assist in recovery from birth.
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Have A Prepregnancy Parenting Talk
Experts and real moms agree: It’s important to chat with your partner about some of the biggest parenting issueslike how you’ll share childcare, working vs. staying home, and religious traditionsbefore you start trying to conceive.
“But before you freak out over differing opinions on circumcision, public or private schools, or other things that are way down the road, remember that you can and will change your mind about a lot of these issues as you go along,” say Rebecca Odes and Ceridwen Morris, authors of From the Hips: A Comprehensive, Open-Minded, Uncensored, Totally Honest Guide to Pregnancy, Birth, and Becoming a Parent. “The important thing is for couples to start talking about their priorities, expectations, and fears throughout the entire process, especially before you get pregnant.”
Will It Be A Boy Or Girl
Both the man’s sperm and the woman’s egg play a part in determining the gender of a baby.
Every normal human cell contains 46 chromosomes . Chromosomes are tiny threadlike structures made from DNA, which each carry human genes. Genes determine a baby’s inherited characteristics, such as hair and eye colour, blood group, height and build.
When a sperm fertilises an egg, 23 chromosomes from the father pair with 23 from the mother, making 46 in total.
The sex chromosome from a woman’s egg is always the same and is known as the X chromosome. But the sex chromosome from a man’s sperm may be an X or a Y chromosome.
If the egg is fertilised by a sperm containing an X chromosome, the baby will be a girl . If the sperm contains a Y chromosome, the baby will be a boy .
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Research A Lead Maternity Carer
An LMC is a health professional, usually a midwife or specialist doctor, who will look after you throughout your pregnancy and 46 weeks after your baby is born. Its a good idea to choose your LMC early in your pregnancy, so ask for recommendations from friends, family members or your GP before youre pregnant. Learn more about maternity care in New Zealand
How To Get Health Insurance From An Employer
It wasn’t so long ago that job-based plans were the best bet for anyone, pregnant or not, looking for health insurance. Employers usually paid a portion, and sometimes even all, of the premium. They often covered spouses and children at a reasonable cost as well. On top of that, employer-sponsored health insurance plans typically provided an ample amount of coverage.
Many of those things are no longer true for this kind of health plan. Thanks to rising costs and other economic realities, more and more employers have stopped being so generous with their insurance offerings. Some pay a smaller percentage of their employees’ premiums. Some have stopped contributing anything at all in that area. Some continue to cover their employees’ premiums but no longer assist with covering spouses or children.
Still, if a job-based health insurance plan is an option for you, seriously consider it before enrolling in another type of plan. If your employer’s offering seems prohibitively expensive, though, or if you think the coverage is lacking, look elsewhere.
Just know that you’ll probably have to wait for the next open enrollment period to come around if you want to buy a plan through your state’s Obamacare marketplace or directly from an insurance company. You can qualify for Medicaid or Childrens Health Insurance Program coverage at any time of the year, though, so don’t drag your feet in contacting your local agency if you think it’s any kind of possibility.
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How To Get Health Insurance Coverage From Medicaid Or Chip
Would you believe that Medicaid finances or supports nearly half of all U.S. births?
Well, it’s true. Or at least it was back in 2010, which is the last time the Kaiser Family Foundation reported on the situation.
Those numbers probably aren’t much different today. Even if they are, it’s still likely a large percentage of American women rely on Medicaid while pregnant.
Given that, heres what you need to know about getting health insurance from Medicaid or CHIP when youre pregnant or planning to become pregnant:
- In general, your yearly income has to fall below a certain level to qualify for Medicaid. The same is true of CHIP, which provides low-cost health coverage to children in families that earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid.
- You don’t have to be a math whiz to figure out if you’re eligible for either of these programs. If you go to healthcare.gov and try to enroll in a plan, it’ll let you know whether or not you qualify for them.
- Another option is to contact your local Medicaid or CHIP agencies. Someone there can tell you if you qualify for coverage while pregnant, what it means if you do, and more.
- You don’t have to worry about enrollment periods when it comes to Medicaid or CHIP coverage. You can enroll in them, and receive coverage from them, any time of year.
