Preconception Planning: Is your Body Ready for Pregnancy?

Planning on getting pregnant can involve taking steps that will help you in having a safe and fulfilling pregnancy and subsequent childbirth. It is important to indulge in preconception planning so as to ensure that you are in the pink of health and ready to go through the process of bearing and birthing a child in the best possible manner. Indulging in this stage is also a way of looking out for your unborn child and ensuring that he or she gets the best conditions during and right after pregnancy. So how can you tell if your body is ready for pregnancy? Here’s a quick list for you!

1. Type of Birth Control: In the preconception stage, it is important to ask what kind of birth control you have been using. This will make it easier for you to estimate your cycles and know when you will be due for your period once you stop the pill, so that you know roughly when you will be ovulating. Usually, for most birth control pills, the time lag is about two weeks which gives you plenty of time for the menstruation cycle to get back to its normal course.

2. Vaccinations: You will need to check whether or not all your vaccinations are current and up to date. Before you start trying for conception, it will be best to get these vaccinations done as many of them cannot be taken once you have conceived, due to side effects like fever and more, which cannot be treated with regular allopathic medication once you are pregnant. Remember to specially check about vaccinations for German Measles and Chickenpox, which can prove to be fatal if they strike during pregnancy or the post-natal period, when the immunity of the body dips.

3. Chronic Medical Conditions: If you have chronic medical conditions like hypertension or diabetes or any other such ailment, then you will need to get your weight, blood pressure, blood sugar level and other such vitals to a normal level before you conceive so that you do not have to deal with the side effects of such medication that can be caused during pregnancy.

4. Supplements: You may have to change or switch the doses and medicines that you have been taking on a long term basis so as to make way for prenatal vitamins which will also help in preventing neural tube anomalies that can strike the baby if the development of the same does not happen properly in the very first month after conception.

While you are at it, you should also consider talking to your doctor about any family history of birth defects and anomalies to know your risk and chances. If you wish to discuss any specific problem, you can consult a gynaecologist.