Planning another pregnancy

Nikki Katz:  Hi everyone this is Nikki Katz from San Diego, California. I’m a free lance writer; author and mother of two girls aged four and two – n – half.  My husband and I are also tentatively starting the process to try to conceive our third child. 

Of course like everything else about pregnancy and labor, I forgotten about what I needed to do to get healthy before getting pregnant.  Whether it’s your first or your fifth it’s important to have a healthy balanced diet before you start trying to get pregnant, both for your fertility and for your baby. 

I’m generally a healthy eater so the first thing I needed to do was get out and get some folic acid vitamins.  My once a day vitamins only had 400 micrograms and I wanted to get a minimum of 600 or 800 which is what the experts suggest.  I ended up finding one that was an additional 400 micrograms at the grocery store and I’ll be adding that to my once a day for a total of 800.  After I get pregnant I’ll just move over to a prenatal vitamin. 

If you have a family history of neural tube birth defects you will actually want to raise your folic acid to at lest 4000 micrograms starting a month before you conceive and you will want to continue that dose throughout your first trimester. 

Other good sources of folic acid are dark leafy vegetables, citrus fruits, nuts, beans, wheat breads or you can always just snack on your toddler’s cheerios.  There are other things to think about as well.  The no brainer’s are to knock out any alcohol, smoking, drugs from your system as soon as possible.  If you are a frequent visitor of Strabucks you will also want to cut most of the caffeine from your diet. 

Experts generally agree that low to moderate caffeine consumption, which is usually less than 300 milligrams a day won’t affect your fertility but your doctor or midwife might have a different point of view.  Since chocolate can have high doses of caffeine, you will want to watch your chocolate intake which unfortunately will be my downfall. 

If you are taking any prescription medications make sure you talk to your doctor about the safety of continuing them.  He will probably want to switch you to a different prescription or just wean you off altogether.  You will need to find out about the potential side effects and then weigh your options. 

Since you won’t know that you are pregnant until at least two weeks after you’ve conceived you will probably want to follow the list of foods to avoid while you are pregnant.  One thing to avoid is un- pasteurized foods.  You will also want to steer clear of shell fish, fish with elevated levels of mercury, sushi and some tropical fish. 

You will also want to stay away from poorly packaged foods, under cooked meats and cheeses and make sure to wash all of your fresh fruits and vegetables. This will help you stay away from illnesses, e-coli and bacteria. 

For more information about this and other pregnancy topics please visit my website at www.allinfoaboutpregnancy.com. I look forward to announcing my pregnancy and sharing more information as the week’s progress.