Pregnancy Planner: Getting Pregnant Ready

If you’re trying to conceive and you’re someone who likes to plan, you may want to invest in a pregnancy planner to get you and your body pregnancy ready. People who enjoy plotting out their course, organizing what they need to do, or making sure they know the right steps to set their mind to not only would enjoy using a pregnancy planner, but could even say, they themselves are pregnancy planners too! So, whether you’ve just started trying to have a family, you’re going to try in the coming year, or you’ve been trying for a while and you are working with a reproductive endocrinologist, we want to help get you pregnant ready.

What is a Pregnancy Planner?

There are tons of Pregnancy Planners to choose from that offer various forms of support, guidance and information depending on what you’re looking for. There are downloadable ones like this one from Healthy Women, which walks you through each trimester of your pregnancy or you can check out this list from Very Well Family, which gives you a list of journals and planners you can buy to record your entire pregnancy journey. Especially if you’ve needed some help conceiving, you may want to capture each moment of the pregnancy you’ve worked so hard to achieve This may be something special for you and your partner or spouse.

A pregnancy planner could also be for someone who is organized and wants to plan as much of their pregnancy as they can to have a healthy and happy one!

How Can A Pregnancy Planner Help Me Get Pregnant Ready?

Depending on which pregnancy planner you get, you can keep track of your overall health as you try to conceive. If your pregnancy planner doesn’t include a section on your path to parenthood, we want to suggest you “plan your pregnancy” by getting your body pregnancy ready! You can do this by taking some of the following steps:

• Get your annual physical. The March of Dimes recommends getting a “preconception checkup”. It can help address any medical concerns you may have, make sure you’re at your healthiest, ensure all of your vaccinations are up to date and that there is nothing that would cause any issues with you being pregnant.
• See Your Dentist. Getting a dental visit in before getting pregnant is also smart. They can take x-rays and ensure there are no issues that need to be addressed like cavities or gum disease.
• Start Taking Prenatal Vitamins. Speak to your OB/GYN or Reproductive Endocrinologist if there’s a vitamin he or she recommends. Prenatal Vitamins have folic acid and several other vitamins that will support a healthy pregnancy.
• Maintain a healthy weight and eat a balanced diet. Now is a good time to double your efforts to eat a diet rich in vegetables, fruit, lean protein, leafy greens, and low-fat balanced meals. This will help you to have a healthy pregnancy.
• Stop smoking. Now is the time to quit smoking. It can not only impact your chances of conceiving but smoking while pregnant leads to an increased risk to deliver your baby early  and for the baby to have a low birth weight.

If You’re a Pregnancy Planner, You’d Also Consider Your Family History

Another factor to consider if you’re planning on getting pregnant is your family history. Do you have any health conditions that run in your family such as Cystic Fibrosis or Tay-Sachs? If so, you should share this information with your OB/GYN and they may be able to offer you a test to evaluate your risk to have an affected child.  Even if you don’t have a family history of a genetic condition, you should consider talking to your OB/GYN about carrier screening. Carrier screening is a blood test that can assess the risk to have a child with a severe disease which could impact their quality of life. If you and your partner are at an increased risk to have a child with a genetic disease, you may want to speak to a Reproductive Endocrinologist about Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD). This is a test which allows parents to significantly reduce the risk that their child will be born with a genetic disease that runs in the family.

While you can’t control every detail that happens, there are things you can do to try and help you and your future child have a healthy and memorable pregnancy. Planning can also be fun with the right attitude but so can expecting the unexpected! Just remember you have your Primary Care Physician, OB/GYN and/or your Reproductive Endocrinologist to answer any questions you have along the way.