When you start to feel ready to start a family, it needs planning! A pregnancy and a new baby is a huge challenge that can leave you feeling overwhelmed even under the best circumstances, and the best way to set your mind at rest is to make sure you have plans in place that you can feel confident in.
Planning to get Pregnant
The first step of planning you need to look at surrounds actually getting pregnant. You need to take account of when you want to get pregnant (for example if you are aiming for a winter birth), any conditions that may affect your fertility like PCOS and ovulation. Ovulation is the most important factor in predicting when you’re going to be fertile – you can’t get pregnant if sperm cannot reach and fertilise that egg within 24 hours of it being ovulated. Knowing when you’re going to ovulate is vital information.
An ovulation tracker or app can help you keep track of when you ovulate, and even predict it so you know when you’re going to be fertile, and can make your plans to try and conceive when you stand the best chance of success!
Doctors and Fertility Specialists
As you’re taking your first steps in trying to start your family, you should be researching local doctors, fertility specialists and hospitals. A pre-conception check is useful to assess your general level of health, as well as identify early on any health conditions that might affect your chances of getting pregnant. This becomes even more important if time passes and you don’t get that positive result on your pregnancy test.
Making sure your doctor knows you’re thinking about starting a family means you make any necessary appointments and get into the system for pre-natal classes, scans and other vital checks. You can put them onto your calendar, incorporate them into your plans and make sure neither you nor your partner misses any important milestones.
Preparation Throughout Pregnancy
There are lots of tasks you’ll need to accomplish before your due date! Identifying what’s important for you allows you to spread the work out through the whole nine months of pregnancy, and split it evenly with your partner – as well as calling on friends for big jobs like painting a nursery or assembling a cot!
Make a list of everything you want to be in place when you bring that baby home from the hospital, from key equipment you need to buy – buggies, bottle sterilisers, clothes and toys! – to tasks to do like a thorough clean and baby-proof of the house, to mundane things like cooking. Stocking the freezer with frozen meals in advance can make all the difference when you’re exhausted and caring for a newborn.
You can work through this list systematically with your partner and make sure that when the time comes, you’ve done everything you can to feel ready for your new baby!
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