Pregnancy Preparedness: Top 10 Rules to Live By

Reviewed by Dr. Elisa Ross in June 2010

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Thinking about starting a family? Before trying to conceive, there is much to learn and do. Get a primer in preconception and early-pregnancy with Dr. Dileo's helpful 10-point list.

There are countless considerations when it comes to family planning and pregnancy. No matter how many books you read, documentaries you watch, or support groups you attend, actually having a baby always demonstrate how little we all know about this baby business. There could just as easily be a hundred, or a thousand points to make about pregnancy and parenthood preparedness.

But here are 10 very good points to heed before you conceive.

Get Pregnant for the Right Reasons

There are many wrong reasons to get pregnant but only one significant good one. Your decision to have a baby should be based on wanting a child, wanting to raise a child, and wanting to make the world better because of how you raise your child.

Strengthen Your Marriage

This means being good partners before exposing children to the complex psychodynamics that constitute a marriage. It's best for any future children if both of you are secure in your relationship before making the next leap toward a family.

Be Good Parents During the Conception

In particular, be sensitive to what you expose yourself to during this time. Smoking, alcohol, and drugs are implicated in miscarriage as well as in abnormal pregnancies and pregnancy complications, which can be damaging to the babies ultimately born. This doesn't mean just heartbreak for you, but a difficult life for the person you bring into the world.

Even exposure to such substances for the man can have an impact, so it is best if a safe lifestyle is equally undertaken by both of you as prospective parents. Since the very egg you conceive with begins its maturation a few months before actually being released, reducing and eliminating exposure for three months before trying to conceive will allow conception with an unpolluted egg, so to speak.

Also, women should take at least 0.4 mg (400mcg) a day of folic acid before conception and through the early part of pregnancy. Folic acid lowers the chance of many major birth defects. This is the dose found in most over the counter mulitvitamin tablets. The "prenatal" versions have even more.