A conception story ... make the healthiest baby you possibly can

I met my partner at the age of 20, we were drawn to each other like magnets. He moved in with me after four weeks, we were married in three and a half years. Nine years later we’d bought our first house.  

At the time I got married, at 24, I figured I’d want a baby when I was 26. But 26 came and I was far from wanting a baby, and so was Andy.

27, no, still not feeling it. I was having way too much fun, and studying. 28, Babies were far from my mind, I could smell the end of a four-year naturopath degree. 29, we bought a house, I graduated. Babies felt somewhat closer, but I still wanted to get my naturopath feet wet, dip my toes in. Practice my skills. And then I turned 30. It was well and truly time.

I went to a 4 day pregnancy conference just for naturopaths. All about care during pregnancy, all the ways we can help our clients as a health care provider. They drummed into me a four month preconception program is ideal.

Nurture your eggs and your partners sperm, make the healthiest baby possible by getting your body and hormones in perfect working order.

Get rid of toxins, bad habits, anything that’s not whole and pure.

Go to yoga,

meditate,

Exercise,

Eat like a health queen.

First there was a detox. I started a six week detox on my own accord. I cut out all that was bad for me, but I kept losing motivation, falling of the wagon. I also had my inner party girl begging to be let out for a last hoorah before motherhood began, to kick up my heels and celebrate my freedom and youth. I got my 23-year-old sister over from Victoria to stay with me for a week so I could pretend to be 23 again. It was awesome.

She came and went, and I knew I had to get serious, and I couldn’t do it on my own. I didn’t want to waste any more time. I enlisted the help of Naturopath Cassandra Boylen, to set me on my path. Having her to hold me accountable was exactly what I needed.

She put me on some detox herbs and supplements. She gave me a diet plan, recipe ideas. I did swimmingly, much better then I was doing as a solo detoxer.

I did have one or two ‘educated’ slip ups, a couple of glasses of champagne on week four for a friend’s birthday. Its what you do most of the time that counts.

I was also taking supplements including probiotics, an antenatal multivitamin. I took Iron and vitamin D supplements after a blood test came back low.

The idea was to get my body in as prime condition for conceiving a beautiful healthy child. All nutrients topped up, hormones primed and ready to go. I also began eating meat after 11 years of vegetarianism. This is because good grass fed meat is packed with all the key nutrients you need for baby making, including B6, B12, zinc, Iron, essential fatty acids, saturated fats and high quality protein. And my iron levels were already on the low side. I intuitively felt that if my body was getting everything it needed, then baby making would be a breeze.

I was healthy in the first place. I could have been exercising a little more, but I’d been a diligent exerciser for most of my twenties. I’d been a super healthy eater for years. My one foible is that I’d regularly indulged in too much wine, and this was one of the major reasons I wanted the detox and preconception care. I wanted to heal as much damage as possible.

In order to make a baby you need a reproductive system that does what it's supposed to. I’ve been fortunate in that my reproductive system has always been reasonably balanced. I hadn’t taken any pharmaceutical contraception since I was 22, preferring to use natural contraception instead (ie I tracked my cycle and avoided sperm while ovulating). I’d noticed since turning 29 my cycle had lengthened by a day or two, and often I experienced a 29 or even 30 day cycle. This bothered me a bit as it meant things had changed, and were not as they were in younger years.

There's plenty that can be done with reproductive disorders such as PCOS and endometriosis. Please don't despair if you experience these or other reproductive issues, be proactive, think positive and please speak to a health care provider to get help.

Once or twice a year I would get crippling menstrual cramps or bouts of pre-menstrual depression, but I noticed these often followed a particularly boozy – coffee filled month. But mostly, my cycle was regular and dependable, an old friend.

I tried to get Andy on board with the preconception too. He’s not a big drinker, he eat’s reasonably well and has long given up smoking. However he is 46 years old (to my 30 years at the time of conception) and has a stressful job. I got him some special healthy sperm supplements, and nag as I might he didn’t take them.

When and if we go for round two the healthy sperm supplements will be non-negotiable however. Having the healthiest child possible is a no-brainer, why would’t you do everything possible to give your bubba the best start?

In my pre-conception phase I treated my body mostly like the temple it deserved to be. No one is perfect all the time, and it’s no use beating your self up for the odd mishap.

Truth be told, I didn’t manage to last the four months of preconception care. I was about at the three-month mark and I spent the week leading up to ovulation with an aching overwhelming urge to try for a baby. So we did, and little Evie (yes I named my unborn child when she was at about 8 weeks gestation) was conceived the first time we tried. She was meant to be, it was her perfect time to come into existence.

And there she was, just like that.     

baby evie at 12 weeks

It’s hard to know how much the preconception care helped, because we had never tried for a baby before, so I have nothing to compare it to. What is definite is that we had absolutely no trouble conceiving a perfectly formed child, and for this I am unendingly indescribably grateful.

I feel the pre-conception preparation invited a healthy pregnancy not only physically but spiritually and mentally. All of these aspects are important for welcoming a new little being into your life.

It also brought me piece of mind, knowing I did my best to give my baby a nourishing environment in which to implant and grow.

The key health points to take away from my preconception experience are

• Know your body. Understand your cycle and recognise when you’re ovulating. Ideally sperm should be ‘introduced’ about a day before you ovulate.

• Your body is a temple, a healthy age-appropriate body will happily reproduce… You are biologically wired to reproduce. So relax and give your body what it needs. A naturopath can assess your diet and arrange testing to correct any nutritional deficiencies.

• A pre-conception care program gives you solid guidelines to get into tip-top shape for conceiving. This is important for everyone but especially important if you have a history of food intolerances, IBS, auto-immune disease, and hormonal or reproductive imbalance.

• It takes two to make a baby, so two people should be engaging in pre-conception care to ensure the best start.

Photo credit: Hannah Jones of Keeper Creative