Preparing to conceive - getting your body baby ready

I can still remember the day that we decided we wanted to start a family. I had originally been one of those people who had the ‘order’ of life all planned out in my head. I would meet a man, we’d move in together, get married, and then have 2.4 children and of course, a pet; most likely a dog. I would enjoy at least 2 years of married life first, travel the world, enjoy each others company and spend some quality time together as a couple before the pitter patter of tiny feet arrived. Of course, it didn’t work out that way – it never does. When my sister gave birth to her first child, I watched the way my parents looked at him, the pride and joy that he gave them, and I decided I didn’t want to wait. I wanted my parents to be around to see my children grow up, and I wanted my children to have their grandparents in their lives for as long as humanly possible.

Rather than starting to try for a baby, we decided to stop trying NOT to, and simply see what happened.

We were incredibly blessed and got pregnant with all three pregnancies very quickly. I know not everyone is this lucky, with many of my close friends and family having had long and challenging journeys to conceive. Whilst much of getting pregnant is down to luck, age, general health and ‘mother nature’, there are a few simple things you can do to try and boost your chances of conceiving and prepare your body for the miracle of life.

Here’s what I did to prepare for my pregnancies:

Know your body – one scientific way to boost your chances of conceiving is getting to know your body – whether you have a predictable cycle or otherwise, it is useful to track your periods to get the best estimate of when you are ovulating, and thus, the most likely window of opportunity for you to get pregnant. There are lots of different apps available to do this, but I personally used an app called Pink Pad. The menstrual cycle tracking app allows you to record historical data of the dates of your periods; which is then used to record cycle length and predicted ovulation dates. You are shown visually and sent alerts when you are ovulating, with an image of a small flower with increasing and decreasing petals across the period in which you are expected to be most fertile. As a general rule, we would have sex both a few days before, during and a couple of days after this predicted ovulation period just incase my dates were slightly out. You can subtley record the days on which you had sex with a small heart, and password protect the app in case of snooping eyes.

Try and stay calm – this is a lot easier said than done but try not to become anxious if it doesn’t happen straight away – it’s easy to become slightly obsessed with due dates, pregnancy tests and ovulation dates, but try not to focus solely on a baby making mission. Despite knowing when your dates are, try to ensure that sex is still as spontaneous and fun as possible, as putting too much pressure on yourself (or indeed your partner!) can have the opposite effect, actually reducing the likelihood of getting the one thing you are wishing for. I am the kind of person who can get quite impatient when there is something that I want, and I genuinely think it was my ‘que sera’ attitude of letting fate decide that kept me calm when we were trying for our first.

Diet and supplements – We all know that eating well is important, but you may not realise just how important your diet can be when preparing our body for pregnancy. I was conscious of keeping my iron levels high (eating a diet high in green vegetables like broccoli and spinach) and started taking a folic acid and vitamin D tablet daily as soon as we started trying to conceive.

A new supplement called Proceive (which wasn’t around when I was trying for the girls) is now available in the UK. With different products for both men and women, these supplements are packed full of the nutrients needed to give your body the best chance of getting pregnant naturally. For women this includes 28 vitamins including folic acid, magnesium, and vitamins B6, B12, E, D and C, and for men, 26 key nutrients needed for pre-conception health and help support healthy sperm, blood flow and energy.

The range also comes with a Max option, specifically designed for those over 35 who have been trying to conceive for 12 months or more.

The range is available in Holland and Barretts from December (but we have a month’s supply of both the mens’ and women’s ranges to giveaway! See how to enter below!)

Exercise – you don’t have to be super fit to get pregnant (thank god!) but it does help to ensure your body is at its optimum weight, and thus if you are slightly tipping the scales in wrong direction, you may want to consider cutting back on those treats and trying to burn off some calories on the run up to getting pregnant. You don’t need to go crazy at the gym every day – just 30 minutes of exercise 3 times a week is a good place to start. I tried to do parkrun once a week – it wasn’t about how fast I ran or whether or not I achieved a personal best, it was taking part, getting my heart rate up and getting out in the fresh air that helped. Running was also a great way to relieve any stress or frustration after a busy week at work.

Don’t overdo it – For the record, you don’t need to have sex every single day to get pregnant – more likely you will exhaust yourself and start to make it feel like a chore. Sperm can live inside the body for up to 3-5 days, so unless your libido is through the roof, don’t go crazy – everyone needs a break occasionally!!!

There are loads of other unproven myths to getting pregnant including what sex positions to try, whether to stay still for 15 minutes after sex etc – but all of which are dubious to say the least!

If you are trying to conceive I wish you all the best in your journey, and hope that you will be getting the news you wish for soon!