How to make a healthy baby
Naturopaths consider pre-conception care to be the ultimate form of preventative medicine. It’s all about making sure you and your partner have the best possible health before attempting to pass your genes on to the next generation.
What does it involve?
Ideally, pre-conception care starts six months before you’re ready to fall pregnant. For the first two months, you will get yourself into peak health – detoxifying, getting back to ideal bodyweight, and ensuring you are getting all of the essential vitamins and minerals necessary for a healthy conception and pregnancy.
For the next four months, the focus shifts to maintaining this healthy diet and lifestyle so that the changes have time to come into full effect. This preparation time is necessary as ova takes three months to mature, while sperm can take up to the full four months. Remember every cell in your baby’s body comes from one egg and one sperm, so it’s important to make sure these are both as healthy as possible.
Who could benefit from pre-conception care?
- Healthy couples who want to pass on good health to their child
- Couples who have infertility problems, including low sperm count, ovulation problems, endometriosis, PCOS and more.
- Couples undergoing IVF
- Couples who have previously had a child born prematurely, with low birth weight, or other problems
- Couples who have suffered a miscarriage
What are the benefits?
- Pass on good health to your child – as I mentioned earlier, Naturopaths call preconception care the ultimate in preventative medicine because of its far-reaching impacts on your child’s health later in life. Foetal exposure to stress, toxins, under-nutrition and obesity has been shown to play a role in the development of many chronic diseases later in life like allergies, cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, behavioural problems, autism and schizophrenia. Just think, you could be positively influencing the future health of your child even before they are conceived.
- Improve your chances of falling pregnant – whether you are trying naturally or using IVF, pre-conception care makes falling pregnant that much easier. Essentially, the healthier you are at conception, the greater chance you have of falling pregnant. Pre-conception care has been shown to more than double the conception success rate for IVF from 23 per cent to 47 per cent (Foresight Preconception UK, 2003).
- A healthy pregnancy – reduced risk of miscarriage, or premature birth and less chance of common complaints like morning sickness.
- A healthy birth – pre-conception care can lead to an increased chance of a natural, intervention free birth, as well as reduce your risk of post-natal depression.
If you’d like to know more about our pre-conception care program and how it can help you, book an appointment with one of our Naturopaths.
If you are wanting to fall pregnant and would like some free advice from our qualified Naturopaths, drop in to the Herb Bar anytime Monday through Friday from 8am – 1pm or Saturday 9am – 1pm. No appointment necessary and a qualified Naturopath will be on hand ready to assist you with a free advice, practitioner grade natural supplements and herbal medicines. The Herb Bar is located at the Centre, 16 Murray Street Hamilton NSW 2303.
