«I am considering having a child, but I don't know if it is a good moment, maybe I would have to prepare myself... »
This is a thought that assails many of us women at some point when we consider having a child. Most of us are clear that it will be necessary to carry out changes our lifestyle when we are pregnant, but we have to know that we should also start making changes before we get pregnant. We are going to try to reel off some of the recommendations so that our pregnancy is as calm as possible, without complications and we have a healthy and healthy baby.
Planning pregnancy
When we consider having a child it can be useful to ask ourselves some questions:
- How old would I like to be when I have my first child?
- How old would I like to be when I have my young child?
- How many children do I want to have?
- How many years of difference do I want my children to take?
- What contraceptive method am I going to use to prevent pregnancy until I am ready to have children?
- Am I sure that both I and my partner will be able to use the chosen contraceptive method without any problem?
- What do I want change, about my health, relationships, home, studies, work or any other aspect of my life to be ready to have children?
- What steps can I take to be as healthy as possible, even if I am not ready to have children yet?
- What diseases (such as diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure) or other concerns (such as smoking, drinking alcohol, and using drugs) should I consult with my doctor?
But keep in mind that your plan should not be unalterable. Things can change! So, make a plan today, review it every now and then, and think that you should be prepared to make changes to it as time goes on.
Preconception consultation
Currently it is possible to arrange a consultation with the Primary Care doctor or midwife. In this consultation, the doctor will assess possible chronic diseases, the treatments you may be taking and the need to change those treatments or request a consultation with a specialist and the midwife will explain them to you. Healthy lifestyle habits and nutritional recommendations. It may be necessary to perform some analysis and a cytology take (it can be done by your midwife).
It is also important to assess your vaccinations, they may recommend updating a vaccine and delaying the pregnancy until you have achieved immunity against the corresponding disease.
What should I consider?
- Health problems: If you have a chronic illness or infection, it is important to make sure you have it controlled and to carry out the appropriate treatment and compatible with pregnancy. These conditions include: sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), diabetes, thyroid gland diseases, phenylketonuria, high blood pressure, epilepsy, or problems that lead to seizures, arthritis, eating disorders, and other chronic diseases. It is important that notify the specialist of your intention to seek the pregnancy so that it evaluates the necessary controls or changes of medication.
- Abuse habits: Smoking, consuming alcohol or taking drugs, living or working in a stressful environment or around toxic substances can be a problem facing pregnancy, and can cause many complications for a woman and her baby, such as premature birth, birth defects, and newborn death. Primary Care professionals can help you with advisory, treatment and other support services.
- Pharmaceutical products: Taking certain medications during pregnancy can cause serious birth defects. These include some prescription and over-the-counter medications, as well as dietary or herbal supplements. If you plan a pregnancy, it is important on request Tell your doctor about the medications you need to take before you get pregnant and make sure you are only taking the ones you really need to take. Find out about the safety of all the herbal products or infusions that you use regularly.
- Vaccines: Some vaccines are recommended before, others during pregnancy, and others immediately after delivery. It is important that you get vaccinations appropriate at the right time, this can help you stay healthy and prevent your baby from getting serious illnesses or health problems for life.
- Take a folic acid and iodine supplement: It is convenient to take since before you got pregnant, it will prevent our baby from having any congenital defectIn addition, as our doctor considers it, we may need a more complete supplement, with iron, calcium and vitamins, specifically to prepare our body to face pregnancy. They currently exist in the pharmacy specific preparations for the preconception period, supplements that provide the necessary amount of iodine, folic acid, iron and vitamins in a single tablet.
In conclusion
It is important that before to get pregnant your body and your mind are in a the most optimal moment possible, for this I leave you some tips
- Stop smoking or reduce the number of cigarettes you smoke per day as much as possible. There is no recommended number, the recommended number is none.
- Don't drink alcohol or drugs.
- Make sure the medication you take is compatible with pregnancy
- Find out about your labor agreement, to know what rights you have in the event of becoming pregnant
- Keep control of possible chronic ailments that you may have
- Take care of your diet, try to keep your body mass index (BMI) between 20 and 25%
- Get a little exercise to keep your body agile
- Make all the health checks that correspond to you; gynecologist, dentist, ophthalmologist ... etc
- Find out about the vaccines that you have pending to get and discuss with your doctor the possibility of giving them now or delaying it until the delivery is over
- Take a specific vitamin supplement, at least one or two months before conception
- Reduce stress. This is usually the most difficult to achieve but it is very important so that we are as calm as possible when facing the first weeks of pregnancy, almost always complicated and stressful by themselves.
- Go to a preconception information talk. In general, there are few places where you can find them, but if you can go to your Health Center and consult with the midwife, she can give you the recommendations in a particular way in her consultation or there are also usually talks about the first trimester of pregnancy that can help you quite a lot, since the recommendations in the beginning of pregnancy are similar to those that should be had previously.