Why Your Preconception Health Matters
Many factors contribute to successful conception, including a healthy lifestyle, adequate preconception testing and counseling, addressing any chronic health conditions, and potentially assisted reproductive treatment.
One of the most important things you can do to prepare for getting pregnant – via IVF or otherwise – is to optimize your preconception health. Here’s how and what our Melbourne fertility clinic can do to help.
Benefits Of Preconception Healthcare
Preconception health care is vital to help ensure a healthy pregnancy, birth, and baby. Obtaining this care can:
- Reduce the risk of birth defects and genetic disorders. Preconception testing can identify genetic conditions or chromosomal abnormalities that may make biological conception difficult or impossible.
- Reduce the risk of miscarriage & pregnancy complications. Optimizing your health before conception reduces the chances of an early miscarriage or pregnancy complications that put the health of the mother and baby at risk.
- Ensure the baby’s well-being. Making sure your genetic material and bodies are capable of reproducing healthily is key to giving your baby the best start in life.
- Identify social and behavioral risks that need modification. Mental health problems, social behaviors, and other similar issues may require treatment, management, and stabilization prior to conception.
Preconception Lifestyle Choices For Successful Conception
There are many things you can do to help your body get ready to make a baby, regardless of which partner you are. Both men and women can benefit reproductively from making lifestyle choices that improve physical and mental wellness.
Eat Fertility-Boosting Foods
Eating a nutritious diet is one of the easiest but most important ways to improve your health while trying to conceive. But you can take this even further by eating foods that specifically help boost the quality of eggs and sperm and improve the chances of conception.
Some foods you can try include:
- Leafy green vegetables that are rich in folic acid
- Whole grains and lean meats that have lots of iron to prevent anemia
- Extra protein and fiber to help regulate hormone shifts
- Fatty fish, nuts, and seeds that have Omega-3 fatty acids for brain and heart health
- Berries and pomegranates for free-radical scavenging antioxidants
Men in particular can eat foods rich in zinc to help improve sperm quality and production. The JAMA Network suggests that the amount of zinc in a sample of semen is roughly 30 times that of blood, making it an essential mineral for male reproduction. Try foods like lean red meat and poultry, tofu, nuts, seeds, legumes, dairy, whole grains, shiitake mushrooms, and green peas.
In addition to eating fertility-boosting foods, it’s also important to avoid processed foods, artificial sweeteners, trans fats, and excessive caffeine. Essentially, the more whole foods you eat like meat, vegetables, and fruits instead of cereal, pasta, and packaged or canned foods, the better off you will be. Eating a healthy diet won’t guarantee conception, but it will improve your overall health and increase your overall chances.
Get Enough Exercise
Exercise is another important part of preconception health care. Staying fit helps regulate hormones and prepares women for the marathon of birth, as well as helps to manage excess weight that may be impacting fertility.
Aim for 30 minutes of moderate exercise most days of the week, well before you start trying to conceive. If you become pregnant, you should continue to stay active per your obstetrician’s recommendations. Usually, only a few modifications are necessary later in pregnancy and overall, exercise is extremely healthy for both mom and baby.
Manage Excess Stress
Managing stress is also critical to successful conception, but it’s often the least attended to. Parents-to-be can increase their chances of either natural or assisted conception by regularly engaging in relaxing activities and finding new ways to cope with external and internal stressors. If you have mental health conditions or past trauma, these are important to work on before getting pregnant for the best possible results.
Book Your Appointment At Viera Fertility Clinic In Melbourne, FL Today
If you’re struggling to conceive or are interested in learning more about assisted reproductive technologies that may be available to you, our Melbourne IVF clinic can help. Contact us today by calling 321.751.4673 (HOPE) or fill out our short online contact form and we’ll get right back to you.