A Tale of Three Trimesters - EditPro-Services

Chapter 1 – Before You Begin
Health and Conception
When you and your husband decide it’s time for company (and you
don’t mean your in-laws), you should take a look at your overall health
picture and consider making some adjustments. Are you on an
exercise program now? If so, don’t stop – it’s important to maintain
your cardio health, and you don’t want to be gaining any weight at this
stage. If you don’t exercise, now is not the time to start kick-boxing or
Jazzercise. Be reasonable and gently work some extra walking,
swimming or other moving into your daily routine.
A great thing to do now is to exercise for relaxation. If you’re trying to
conceive and having difficulty, one of your biggest enemies is stress.
Try yoga stretches and deep breathing. Go for a midnight swim or a
lazy walk together. Use exercise rather than wine to help you “chill
out.”
If either of you smokes, the time to quit is NOW. Smoking interferes
with fertility, and can cause your eggs to age prematurely. This means
that a 30-year-old smoker has the eggs of a 45-year-old, making
conception difficult. Smoking while pregnant increase your risk of
miscarriage, and often causes babies to be born with low birth weight,
putting them at risk for all kinds of complications.
Another battle you may need to fight is with your weight. Ideally, you
should be within a healthy weight range for your height when you get
pregnant. But before you rush out and buy the latest crash diet plan,
consider this – rapid weight loss can interfere with your menstrual
cycle and normal ovulation. Change is good, but not radical change.
Take your diet seriously and eliminate the excesses that are keeping
the weight on. Moderate exercise like swimming, walking, and gentle
aerobics can also help you in the battle of the belly.
On the other side of the coin, being underweight can make becoming
pregnant difficult, and cause complications during pregnancy. When
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