You might have never considered that there are things you can do to conceive a healthy baby. Your body knows what to do, right? There’s just the small matter of some hanky panky and the rest is out of your hands?
Wrong. Here are some important things to consider to give your body the best chance possible to conceive a healthy baby.
It’s important to create some space and time to get healthy before consciously starting to try for a family. For one thing, it takes approximately three months for an egg to mature and a sperm to be created – they don’t materialise out of thin air. It takes good nutrition and lifestyle choices and nice healthy organ function to be in optimum shape to make and carry a healthy baby.
In Chinese medicine we look at your overall health and wellbeing to ensure it’s all working well so you can enjoy optimal fertility. For healthy conception, we assess the basics first:
- Your digestion needs to be working well so you can take in the nutrients you need that will help to regulate your hormones.
- You should be getting adequate sleep, at least seven hours per night in a nice dark room.
- Your stress should be minimal and you shouldn’t be dealing with regular infections of any kind.
In Chinese medicine speak, this means you need a strong healthy Spleen, a free-flowing Liver, charged up Kidneys, healthy smooth-flowing Blood and Qi. If any of these things aren’t happening, your practitioner will check your pulse, tongue and abdomen for signs of imbalance that can then be addressed through acupuncture, Chinese herbs, your diet and your lifestyle.
Get Your Body Ready to Conceive a Healthy Baby
So how do you go about achieving all this before you conceive to give yourself the best chance of falling pregnant quickly with a healthy baby that you can carry to term?
- Go off alcohol – yep – it’s not doing you any favours in the fertility department. That includes your partner too. Alcohol will increase heat in your body which means it’s dehydrating at a time when you need a lot of moisture.
- Reduce sugar to a minimum. Instead, make sure you are eating good-quality protein at every meal: breakfast, lunch and dinner. This will reduce sugary food cravings and help to build your Qi and Blood which in turn will improve the quality of eggs and sperm. Where you can, make sure your meat is grass-fed and organic.
- Increase your vegetable intake through the roof. This will help to improve your bowel habits and it will give you the influx of nutrients that you need to ensure your fertility is optimal. I can’t speak too highly about vegetables. Have a goal of getting them in at breakfast, lunch and dinner. You can easily blanch a few snow peas and much on those for example at breakfast at the same time as you’re making yourself a cuppa. Easy peasy.
- Drink loads of fresh water. This helps to flush you out and is good for your blood. Since we are mostly blobs of water walking around (we are in fact 70% water), it should be clear enough as to why we need to drink so much of it. It makes everything work better. When you have alcohol, coffee and tea, this makes you pee so much water out and you need to drink even more to get it back in. So back right off on all of the alcohol, coffee and tea and drink more herbal tea varieties instead that will hydrate you, such as rooibos, peppermint and fennel.
- Minimise your stress through a clean diet, frequent exercise and regular mind-calming methods such as visualisation, meditation and yoga. Stress is one of the biggest factors we see as having a negative impact on fertility. It’s not fair that some people can be stressed out of their mind and still fall pregnant, but life’s not fair. It’s definitely better for you not to be stressed prior to falling pregnant. If there are stressors that you can get rid of then do that. It will make life so much easier. I see it time and time again in clinic – women always underestimate how much stress is affecting them. They may not necessarily feel it mentally but their body is, and it’s not coping.
- Investigate any medical issues with your trusted GP who can refer you onto the best care. It’s within normal range for conception to take a good 12 months. If you’ve been trying for longer than that, then best to start to get it checked out. Getting your body and mind into the best shape possible will help.
- Visit a Chinese medicine practitioner. As well as taking on some of the tips we’ve shared above, it’s important to also check out what may be imbalanced from a Chinese medical perspective. We look at your body and health differently to a Western medical practitioner and can pick up other things that may affect you such as too much heat in your body, too much damp or not enough Blood.
If you need help and are local to Bondi, Sydney, we are here and would love to be of service. We’ve helped many women and men to start a family. Let us help you too.