Preparing for Baby: My Essentials for Preconception
I shared quite a while ago on my Instagram feed that I was making some changes to my routine to prepare my body for conception. Here we are, months later and I'm so excited to be approaching my third trimester of pregnancy with our first little nugget! While I know fertility is a complex issue and no approach to wellness is one size fits all, I've benefitted from others being transparent about their experiences and recommendations so it was important to me to share my own experiences and knowledge even if it helps just one person.
Starting with healthy "soil" for your little seed is so important because the foundation you lay during preconception impacts your hormone balance necessary to maintain a pregnancy, egg quality, fetal development, and even your pregnancy/birth. While I understand your partner's health is equally important, the focus of this article is on what I did for my own health. Sharing how I prepared with a few tips below, bullet points at the bottom for those who want the “ quick and dirty” version!
Consulted with My Health Care Providers
The first thing I did was to get a well woman exam and consult with my midwives about my current state of health. (I see a certified nurse midwife (CNM) for my basic gynecological needs.) My thought process was if there are any issues that come up with my health, we could address them sooner rather than later, and I could ask for professional advice on prepping my body. In addition to getting examined by midwife or OB/GYN you're considering to support you throughout pregnancy, I also recommend asking questions about their own birth philosophy and standard practices. You may find a provider that was great for your gynecological needs may not share your values when it comes to pregnancy and birth. Alternatively, you may find while your provider has a great bedside manner you end up butting heads later on if your philosophies don’t align. You don’t need that stress! I highly recommend changing providers early on if either is the case.
Please do not skip this step! Even with the wealth of information online and on social media, that does not replace a relationship with a qualified care provider.
Focused on Nutrient Dense, Cycle Friendly Meals:
My only "food rules" are to eat real food instead of processed as often as possible, eat what I like, and try to make most meals as nutrient dense as possible. The only major dietary changes I made for preconception outside of that were to cut back on caffeine to stay more hydrated, got more intentional about including hormone healthy foods like leafy greens, sweet potatoes, avocados, and nuts/seeds. They are considered cycle friendly because these provide and abundance of vitamins, minerals, and fats that serve as the building blocks for our hormones and necessary physiological processes that occur within the body. I also let the stages of my cycle to help guide my food choices. As our hormones and energy levels change, attuning our food choices to our body’s cues helps promote hormone balance, us feel more energized, and can even decrease discomfort like cramps and bloating. I used the food guidelines in the book Woman Code by Alissa Vitti to help me get started with this. While there are no magical foods for fertility, I noticed big changes in my energy and comfort levels throughout the cycle by making these modifications:
Started Supplementing
I don't love supplements and try my best to get everything I need through my diet, but generally speaking a multivitamin, omega 3 and probiotic is a great basic supplement regimen for most people. The same goes for preconception. Just change that multivitamin to a prenatal vitamin. You may also consider adding in vitamin D and/or other fertility supporting herbs to support hormone balance and fetal development depending on your prenatal, but this is where I would consult with your healthcare team for specific recommendations. I took Preconception from Eu Natural Supplements, and Omega 3 with DHA and Metagenics Probiotic. Now that I'm pregnant, I've swapped Preconception with Innate Response Prenatal vitamins. On days when I couldn't swallow my IR tablets (hello morning sickness!) I took Garden of Life Gummies. I don't love them as much as IR as far as the nutritional content, but they got the job done on those rough days!
Nourished My Cycles
Our cycles are SO telling when it comes to the state of our health. As my friend Bri of Fertile Alchemy likes to say "a fertile body is a healthy body!" Having a regular cycle, lasting 28-30 days, where you are ovulating, not experiencing pain, and not bleeding more than 4-5 days is ideal. Monitor your cycles with the help of apps like Kindara which is my personal favorite help you identify patterns you can talk to your providers about. Be mindful of what you are putting in your body from a nutritional stand point and on your body when it comes to your personal products. A long time ago I eliminated products with parabens, fragrances, and other harmful ingredients that have been shown to disrupt hormones. I replaced all those products with the help of apps like EWG and Think Dirty App. One of my favorite non-toxic body care additions was Fertile Alchemy’s aromatic oil and accompanying line because not only are her body products luxurious to use, the blends are intentionally crafted with essential oils, flower essences, and essential minerals that are supportive of feminine reproductive health. I would recommend a holistic provider such as a Chinese Medicine doctor, Chiropractor, or Naturopath in addition to your medical team to get a comprehensive look at how your lifestyle and nutritional status could be affecting your cycles.
Sought Holistic Support
On that note, I saw an acupuncturist regularly for 3 months while trying to conceive to optimize my fertility and started going to therapy. Fertility is not only physical but also spiritual and emotional. I dealt with a lot of emotional stress before trying to conceive so acupuncture, therapy, and chiropractic care helped me get to the root of my stress and mitigate the effects it was having on my physiology. I found my therapist through the Therapy for Black Girls directory. Open Path Psychotherapy is another great resource especially if the cost of therapy might be prohibitive to you. Acupuncture helped me manage stress and identify the ways in which stress was manifesting in my body. You can learn more about acupuncture and women's health through my favorite acupuncturist, Lori Early owner of Phoenix Rising Acupuncture.
Created Space in My Life
I knew I was not going to be able to grow and nurture this baby if I was mentally, physically, and emotionally focused on #doingallthethings. I got intentional about learning to say no, creating boundaries within my career and relationships, and "calling my baby in" during my meditation so his or her little spirit would know I was ready. I would literally place my hands on my womb and ask my little baby out there what he/she needed from me to make my womb a good home for them. I also decided to let go of my chiropractic business. There are more layers to why I closed shop, but one major reason was my husband was going to be pursuing a dream job in another city and I personally felt that I would struggle with nurturing a life inside me and nurturing a new business location in a brand new city (or alternatively living separately from him during a season where I'd need all the extra support). Doing so was one of the best things I could've done. My stress levels were lower, I could focus on my body more, and once I got pregnant I had time to get the rest by body was craving as it built a tiny human from scratch!
If you're considering changing up your health routine or embarking on a fertility journey of your own I highly recommend having qualified health professionals in your corner to help guide you in making the right choices for your unique needs and situation. Although I can't answer personal health questions if you are not currently under my care, I'm always happy to provide resources to help you get going in the right direction! Here is a quick recap of the changes I made and how you can implement them easily:
Consult with your health care providers. Get a wellness check up and start interviewing midwives or OB/GYNS you might want to birth with.
Find ways to make your meals more nutrient dense and cycle friendly. A few easy changes you can make:
add a serving of veggies (about 1/2 cup) to each meal
aim for half your body weight in ounces of water. To make it easier you may need to eliminate coffee and juices like I did.
make sure you are getting healthy fats for hormone production. An easy way to do this is snack on raw nuts, avocado, and boiled eggs. Swap any processed cooking oils for avocado oil, coconut oil and ghee.
Check out fertilealchemy.com for recipe inspiration and resources.
Get on a prenatal vitamin and consult with your health care providers on adding in other essential nutrients for healthy conception such as Omegas/DHA and Vitamin D3.
Seek holistic support. Consider the ways in which your mental, emotional, and spiritual health may be lacking or need strengthening. Conception is not just a physical journey! Stress, trauma, limiting beliefs, spiritual imbalance are just some examples of factors that impact fertility. I relied on chiropractic care, acupuncture, and therapy.
Create space. Could you bring a child into your current lifestyle? Are there areas of incongruence/imbalance or things you want to change in preparation for parenthood? It could be material like asking for a raise or saving more, or immaterial like checking in with your emotions and energy surrounding conceiving and welcoming a child. Practical ways to get started:
Start a new journal specifically for your preconception and pregnancy journey to reflect on your experiences, thoughts, and feelings.
Begin a meditation practice. I started with the help of the app Expectful.
Take an inventory of your short and long term goals. Create a plan for accomplishing your goals using measurable outcomes. Eliminate anything that would be a hinderance to accomplishing those goals and/or modify your lifestyle to get congruent with them. Ex: Instead of “save money in preparation for baby” maybe you write “Save $5k within 6months for Baby Fund” and list action steps to help you get there: “ask for a raise, automate my savings, cancel unused subscriptions and put money towards baby fund.”