Your Preconception Checkup Plan
Get Pregnant Faster with These 5 Appointments!
It can be daunting and often confusing when you decide the time is right to start trying to get pregnant!
There’ll be plenty of ‘helpful’ advice from your family and friends, even your neighbour may have a special tip to share! Then you decide to consult Dr Google- and that really opens up a can of worms!
What you need now is a lot less confusion and lot more personalized, professional support to cut through all the noise, theories and nonsense when you begin to navigate your path to baby.
The best time to start seeking out advice and preparing for conception is 3- 6 months ahead of starting to try. If you’re already begun trying, don’t worry just get started as soon as you can.
These 5 appointments are going to help you get baby on the way faster, feel more confident and help to increase the health of the baby you will conceive.
5 steps lovely, no more guessing, breath holding or finger crossing!
Appointment 1
Your GP
WHY? – You’ll need maternal health, infection and basic genetic screening.
Ensuring there are no nasty (often asymptomatic) infections going on is a really smart place to start. This way you can treat or manage issues early and reduce the impact on your fertility.
Why you shouldn’t wait ‘til you’re pregnant -
Some treatments are not safe to take during pregnancy, and some procedures – like pap smears, are better to do before you conceive. Having your screening completed early allows you time to resolve any issues well before your precious bundle is already on the way.
Ensure you ask for genetic tests such as karyotyping and MTHFR status (to ensure you know which is the correct type of folate for your genetics).
Appointment 2
A Fertility Specialist Naturopath
WHY? – You'll need support learning fertility awareness, optimizing your hormone balance and developing the diet and lifestyle changes to boost your fertility. As-well as help creating a customised pre-natal supplement regime which is right for YOU.
Why you shouldn’t wait ‘til you’re pregnant -
The foundations of baby’s health are the sperm and egg that contribute his or her genetic blueprint. Both the sperm and the egg take close to 3 months to develop or mature. They are exquisitely sensitive to their environment during this time – the nutrient repletion, oxidative stress level, toxin exposure, presence of inflammation and hormone balance; all affect healthy cell development, fertilization and embryonic development.
Very few of us learnt much about our fertility, our menstrual cycles and our hormones at school. This leaves us without the tools we need to understand our fertility, to detect hormone imbalances and to discover our fertile windows.
1 in 6 couples are expected to take longer than 12 months to conceive and 1 in 8 are expected to have fertility issues, unfortunately this number is growing, not reducing. With careful, personalized preconception care you can significantly increase your likelihood of a faster, easier conception.
Appointment 3
Your Dentist
WHY? – For A Preconception Dental Check
Why you shouldn’t wait ‘til you’re pregnant -
Gum disease and tooth decay are both shown to impact your fertility and your likelihood of a healthy, full term pregnancy. Research shows men with gum disease have lower sperm quality, for women, poor dental health causes increased time to conception, lower IVF success rates and higher risk of miscarriage.
Seeing your dentist before you start trying will help you identify and treat periodontal disease and remove a barrier to conception.
Many dental procedures are avoided during pregnancy, such as over-use of fluoride, as it has a detrimental affect on your and baby’s thyroid gland, and Xrays which must also be avoided during pregnancy.
Appointment 4
An Andrology Specialist
WHY? – An Andrology Specialist is specifically trained to provide an accurate, detailed analysis of your husband’s sperm. ( Your local pathology labs don’t excel in this testing )
Your partner is equally important as you are on the way to baby!
Male fertility has declined by 50% in the last 40 years, this coupled with the fact that 30% of all infertility cases are linked solely to male factor fertility issues provides a powerful reason to get your man’s sperm tested early on… not after 12 months of trying and increasing stress and anxiety.
A good quality sperm analysis with a fertility andrology lab looks at sperm count, morphology, motility and DNA fragmentation.
Most male fertility issues can be overcome with diet, lifestyle changes and evidence-based naturopathic medicines within 3-6 months of naturopathic support.
I use evidence-based natural medicine to support sperm count, morphology, motility and reduced DNA fragmentation….to help you conceive a healthy baby and reduce the risks of miscarriage.
Why you shouldn’t wait ‘til you’re pregnant -
Poor sperm health increases the risks of miscarriage, and a higher risk of premature birth, late stillbirth, low Apgar scores, low birth weight, higher incidence of newborn seizures and birth defects such as congenital heart disease and cleft palate.
Poor sperm health is also found to increase the likelihood of childhood cancers, psychiatric and cognitive disorders, and autism.
Obviously we all want to reduce the risk of these issues.
In 3 months, most male fertility issues can be overcome with diet, lifestyle changes and evidence-based naturopathic medicines. This truly gives your future baby a magnificent start to life and a gift of health to cherish for their lifetime.
Appointment 5
Your Mindset Support Team (counsellor, psychologist, kinesiologist…)
WHY? – We know that the path to parenthood is not always smooth sailing or easy .… so resilience, trust and faith are KEY. In addition, your mindset can affect your body, your hormones, and your ability to conceive.
Your mindset is an often overlooked piece of your preconception plan, unfortunately ignoring this element can make your ttc journey longer. It can definitely lead to more overwhelm, and likely higher levels of stress and anxiety. Lower stress levels have been proven to lead to faster conception!
Why you shouldn’t wait ‘til you’re pregnant -
Receiving the tools and strategies to stay calm, positive and confident is a powerful way to help you thrive while you TTC. Good self-care rituals are an important part of your emotional tool kit, these rituals will not only help you to conceive calmer but faster.
These skills will be useful though-out your pregnancy and your parenting journey.
When you are ready to start trying to conceive - try taking an empowered and aware approach, as you do with any other important life goal. The old "Just start trying, come back if you're not pregnant in 12 months" approach isn't the best way to achieve your healthy, happy pregnancy.