Healthy Pregnancy Starts LONG Before You Think!

I work with a lot of women in my practice, and many of them are at or approaching the time in their lives when they would like to start having a family. As a result, they inevitably end up asking me about pregnancy and birth and when they should start ‘preparing’ for a healthy baby. Well, the simple answer to that is technically two answers: as soon as possible and you can always be working to be at your healthiest to become pregnant.

When Do We Start Focusing on Healthy Pregnancy?
 
Realistically, it’s never to early to start planning for a healthy pregnancy! This is true because a healthy pregnancy technically starts long before conception even happens. If we want to live our best lives, and give our kids the opportunity to live their best lives then regardless of pregnancy, you are always trying to be your best or your healthiest version of you! That being said, just because you ate chips and drank pop and stayed out until all hours of the night as a teenager and into your twenties doesn’t mean you’ve missed your window of opportunity to have a healthy baby. Just means the sooner you can start, the better and it’s never too late to improve your health.

Why Does this matter?
Half of all pregnancies in the US/Canada are not intended or planned. Therefore, if you’re always in a state of health it doesn’t matter as much when you become pregnant. Also, there’s the myriad of health conditions you can protect your unborn baby from by being healthy/healthier long before you become pregnant. You can actually help prevent illnesses like: allergies, eczema, asthma, depression, gut problems, autoimmune disease, heart disease and autism by being healthy before pregnancy. Remember, the choices that you make today, help to create the world our children will inherit tomorrow. If we make better choices now, we make our world better for them later.

Are you Sexually Active? Take your Vitamins
If you are presently sexually active, I recommend taking some vitamins in preparation for pregnancy. If you are actively trying to become pregnant, then a good quality prenatal vitamin with methyfolate can be started in advance of a positive test or having sex with the intention of having a baby. Methylfolate is absorbed better than folate and helps to reduce the risk of neural tube defects. If you’re thinking you're still a ways away from trying to become pregnant, I still recommend having methylfolate, but you can get it on it’s own or as part of a B complex. Remember how I said about ½ of pregnancies aren’t planned? Take your vitamins. You can certainly take other nutrients, like Fish oil and Vitamin D3. Talk to your Naturopathic Doctor or other health care provider to help you put together a plan that addresses your individual needs. 

Avoid High Mercury Fish
Mercury and other heavy metals are a problem for all of us, but especially for a newly developing and growing human being. At present, children born into today’s world have about 300 chemicals in their system, identified from their umbilical cord blood. Mercury and other heavy metals can transfer to the baby in utero. We also know that mercury can cause neurological and hormonal issues. If you’re consuming seafood during pregnancy or even before, check to make sure that it’s clean as far as heavy metals. The Environmental Working Group website keeps a fairly up to date database of safe and unsafe fish.

Clean up your Cosmetics
Did you know most women apply 10 products before leaving the house in the morning? We often forget that our skin is our largest organ. What goes on the skin, also goes in! Many of these toxins will stay in our body for long periods of time, months to years, and can then be passed onto your baby. Another good resource for checking your cosmetics and hygiene products is the Skin Deep database maintained by the Environmental Working Group.

Go Organic!
I know this is a tough and controversial one, but even switching over some of your foods to organic can have a big impact.  Minimizing our exposure to pesticides wherever possible is important because they can remain in your body and be passed onto your growing baby. Studies have also shown that kids exposed to pesticides have lower IQs. If you’re not ready or able to go completely organic, at least following the Clean 15 and Dirty 12 list can be helpful. Eliminating just these highly sprayed products from your diet can reduce your pesticide exposure by 70% or more.

Aim for Your Optimal Weight
I know you’re thinking, “I’m just going to gain weight in pregnancy, why try to lose it now?”. Unfortunately, being significantly overweight increases the risk of certain complications such as gestational diabetes and cesearan section. Being overweight can also increase the risk of your baby developing health issues like eczema, asthma, allergies and obesity. Also, having the body you love now, can help you be your healthiest self physically, mentally and emotionally later on.

Chill Out! De-stress!
Stress affects pretty well every system in the body. In particular stress messes with hormones and creates fertility problems. At present, it’s estimated that 80% of all health issues stem from stress! Stress pregnancy can lead to depression, anxiety, and obesity in you and your baby. Do your best to make time for your favourite de-stressing activity on a regular basis so you do not become overwhelmed by stress.

Fix Your Gut, Fixes Theirs Too!
Having a healthy gut or ‘microbiome’ means that your baby will too. A baby’s first exposure to healthy microbes is from their mother. Ideally from a natural birth where passing through the vaginal canal gives them good bacteria as well as breastfeeding. With a few exceptions, a person’s gut flora is mainly set by age 3. Therefore, giving babies a good start can literally set them up for a healthy gut for life.

Building a Healthy Gut
In order to establish a healthy gut, there are a few helpful things you can do. Avoid antibiotics, for yourself and your baby, unless absolutely necessary. Ensure you eat a whole foods diet with some fermented foods included. From time to time, take a good quality probiotic. The more research is done on the gut/microbiome, the more we realize we cannot get everything we need to grow and maintain a healthy gut from diet alone. Therefore, optimizing both diet and occasionally supplementing as needed is likely the best strategy.

To Supplement or Not to Supplement?
Ultimately this is going to be different for each person. There are a few that I generally look at/recommend to most of my patients at one time or another.
Supplements to consider for most people:

• Vitamin D3
• Magnesium
• Probiotics
• Fish oil
• Multivitamin/Greens*

The reason for most of these is that it’s difficult or almost impossible for us to get enough for our optimal health from diet alone. There are very few naturally occurring dietary sources of Vitamin D3, and most of us don’t get enough of the right kinds of sunrays to produce our own Vitamin D. Recent studies have shown that most people are moderately to severely deficient in Magnesium. In North America we don’t eat much fish or sufficient plant sources of Omega 3s so again we are generally deficient in these essential fatty acids.  Probiotics I’ve already mentioned, and the multivitamin and/or greens I would say is the most optional because if you’re generally eating well and don’t have absorption issues then you’re likely doing ok with your nutrient intake. However, if you’re not eating well or are picky then a multi or greens supplement may be beneficial for you.

Prenatal Vitamins
The ‘best’ of anything is not easy to define. The ‘best’ can change based on the criteria your using. Is it best for price? Best for quality? Best combination of the two? I am really not a fan of ‘which one is the best one?’, I almost always answer ‘it depends’. As far as the prenatal vitamin goes, there are a few things to look for in a good quality one:

• Methylfolate
• Iron
• Methylcobalamin (Vitamin B 12)
• As many active forms of vitamins as possible
  

Bare Bones of a Healthy Diet
I often get asked, ‘what is the best diet?’ I will still likely answer ‘it depends’, but there are some commonalities between the diet plans that are worthwhile. Generally speaking the typically incorporate 4 things:

• Eat mostly vegetables and some fruit
• Eat some protein
• Eat some healthy fat
• Don’t eat sugar, deep fried and highly processed foods

Beyond that, it’s really up to you and what your body needs to be it’s healthiest possible version.

Have questions about having a healthy pregnancy or how to improve your health overall? Please email me through the website ‘contact’ page or get in touch with me directly. 

Note: Talk to your Naturopathic Doctor today about getting assessed and treated if needed, and as always talk to your health care provider before beginning any new medication or supplement. This information is not meant to replace the advice/guidance of a medical professional, nor should it be acted upon by individuals unsupervised by the appropriate healthcare provider.