Preparing your Body for Pregnancy

Your lifestyle can affect the health of your growing baby. Everything you eat, smoke, drink or otherwise ingest while pregnant affects not only your body but also the developing body of your baby. [hana-code-insert name=’rectangle’ /]Because your developing baby will entirely depend on your body for nourishment and protection, it is necessary to alter your lifestyle prior to conception so that you eliminate any bad habits or risk factors that might compromise your health.

Change your lifestyle to suite the comming baby

Do not assume that because you feel fine eating, drinking or smoking something that this is also healthy for your baby. Your baby’s developing body is far more fragile than yours. Your baby’s dividing and growing cells contain fragile genetic material that can be poisoned by various substances. Should such poisoning occur, your baby may develop abnormally and be born with birth defects, mental retardation, poor growth or other substantial undesirable complications.

Pregnant women should avoid certain foods and substances because of the way those foods and substances can negatively affect developing babies.

Avoid Smoke, alcohol or harmful drugs

Many parts of your daily routine (E.g. Smoke, alcohol, or certain drugs) can be quite harmful to your developing baby. They have a much more powerful and negative effect on a developing fetus. You should also meet with your doctor to review all the prescription medications you are currently taking to determine whether they are safe for you to continue to use during pregnancy.

Take Vitamins , Minerals and iron

Your baby requires vitamins and minerals in order to develop properly. You may want to consider taking prenatal vitamins even before you become pregnant so as to prepare your body for the demands of pregnancy and inclusion of folic acid in these supplements. Folic acid prevents a very serious developmental complication called a neural tube defect from occurring. Pregnant women and those women hoping to become pregnant soon should take between 800 and 1,000 micrograms of folic acid each day.

Keep in mind that prenatal vitamins are intended to supplement a healthy diet, it will not provide all of the vitamins and minerals you need to ensure a healthy pregnancy. You will still need to eat a healthy and nutritious diet to support your health and your baby’s health.

Be aware of the fact that some women experience nausea while using prenatal vitamins. This nausea can contribute to the symptoms of morning sickness and make you feel very uncomfortable. You may need to eat food before taking your vitamins to avoid the nausea.

Pregnancy how all starts

The birth of a child is one of the most rewarding and memorable experiences a woman can have. It is a great feeling to have a life growing inside your body.

This section is to provide depth information about the pregnancy period from first to ninth month. We should know all the symptoms and the precautions, so that we can start preparing ourselves for safety pregnancy.[hana-code-insert name=’rectangle’ /]

Learning about fertility and conception is the first step in increasing your knowledge of getting safety and healthy pregnancy. From the first sign of pregnancy to the last contraction, your pregnant body is changing and growing a baby. As your body grows month by month in your pregnancy you will experience physical changes. 

Start of pregnancy

A pregnancy occurs when reproductive cells from a man and a woman’s body become combined inside a woman’s uterus. The sperm are able to move around within the vagina, and make their way through the cervix and into the uterus. The sperm compete to penetrate the outer membrane or covering of the egg which seals off permanently once a single sperm makes its way inside.

 The new sperm and egg combination next exchange genetic material to form a new human being, producing a fertilized egg that will later attach itself to the wall of the uterus and start growing into a new human being if all goes well. The combination of sperm and egg occurs only during the fertility period.

 The fertile days are those when there is a possibility of conceiving a baby. Identifying this fertility period according to the date of your menstrual cycle, and planning accordingly, can help maximize your chances of becoming pregnant.

Ovulation Period

Ovulation is the process of an ovary releasing an egg. A woman is most likely to become pregnant during ovulation period, which is the time when her egg is released from one of her two ovaries. Normally women have 28 or 30 days menstrual cycle. The women having 28 days menstrual cycle will be most fertile between 13 and 15 days after the start of their last period. The women having a 30 day menstrual cycle would subtract 14 days from 30 days to arrive at 16^th  day, meaning that they are most fertile about 16 days after the start of their last period. Not all the women have 28 or 30 days menstrual cycle, these women can calculate their ovulation period by subtracting 14 days from the length of their menstrual cycle.

Effect of Birth Control Pills

Birth control pills effect on the women body, health and on the menstrual cycle also. It is effecting on the hormones level which is created in the women body and essential for the pregnancy process. Birth control pills decrease your fertility levels. Hence if you were using birth control pills prior to trying to become pregnant, it may take you several months before your fertility levels return to normal. Because of this fact doctors typically recommend that women stop using birth control pills two to three months prior to when they hope to become pregnant. So that your fertility level become normal and you will enjoy your pregnancy during your expected time.