If you are planning to become a mom in the foreseeable future, it’s time to tell about this not only to your partner, but also to your doctor.
As soon as you think about offspring, first of all try to find a good gynecologist and find out from him everything about the state of your body and the prospects for bearing a healthy child, be sure to ask the following questions.
1. When to start taking prenatal vitamins?
One of the most well-studied medical phenomena is the undeniable benefits of taking folic acid during pregnancy. She makes the woman more fertile and provides the child with the necessary nutrition. The American Institute of Gynecology and Obstetrics recommends taking 0,4 mg of folic acid daily, one month before trying to conceive and throughout pregnancy. Folic acid has been shown to reduce the risk of serious birth defects such as damage to the neural tube of the fetus.
2. Can I continue to exercise on the simulators?
Long hours of training on a machine is undesirable, but it is good to stay active. If you are healthy, moderate exercise is recommended to improve fertility, mom health, and an easy pregnancy. However, you need to consult your doctor about specific exercises that vary for different organisms. In addition, some of them need to be avoided by pregnant women, while others, on the contrary, are very useful.
3. When is conception most likely to occur?
You need to focus on the time of ovulation. It has been proven that the more a couple makes love before ovulation, the more sperm gets into the female reproductive organs and the higher the chances of getting pregnant. Doctors recommend doing this every day or every other day for six days until the day of ovulation.
4. How much does it cost to wait after stopping the birth control pill?
Contraceptive pills do not have long-term negative effects on fertility, contrary to popular misconception. On the contrary, after you stop taking them, the risk of getting pregnant is higher than before you start. A woman should just wait for one normal menstrual cycle and then start trying to get pregnant. In almost all women, the regular cycle resumes 90 days after the end of the contraceptive pill.
5. Does my weight matter?
Extremes in weight – too much or too little – can lead to malfunctioning ovulation and infertility. Low weight increases the risk of fetal starvation, while high weight can lead to miscarriage, high maternal blood pressure, diabetes, premature birth, fetal defects and missed pregnancies. Talk to your dietitian about how to bring your weight back to normal. .
6. Am I too “old”?
Unfortunately, age does matter, and the older you get, the less chance you have of getting pregnant. Females are born with a full oocyte supply of approximately 1–2 million, while males only start producing sperm during puberty. The peak of female fertility lasts up to 30 years, after which a slow but steady decline begins. However, theoretically, a woman can conceive before the onset of menopause, that is, on average up to 51 years. In addition, the risk of miscarriages increases with age.
7. Do I need to be vaccinated?
First of all, you need to get vaccinated against chickenpox and other viruses that can infect a child. This is especially true for the mosquito-borne Zika virus. The virus can be passed from mother to embryo during pregnancy and cause serious birth defects, especially during the first trimester. If a woman or man has traveled to places where the virus is common, it is recommended to postpone conception for two months for women and six months for men from the date of return, even if there are no symptoms.
8. Should genetic screening be done?
You need to find out your medical history before conception through genetic screening. If a woman turns out to be a carrier of some kind of genetic disease, then her partner must also be tested. If both turn out to be carriers, then their child will have a 50% probability of being a carrier, and with a 25% probability – the disease itself. Such screenings have already been carried out for 100 diseases.