The time to think about shaping up for pregnancy is before you become pregnant! So, if you’re contemplating parenthood, now is when you should go all-out for fitness.
DietIf you are overweight, lose those pounds before conception. Obesity can cause numerous and often dangerous problems in the course of pregnancy – especially during labour and delivery – and trying to lose weight while you are pregnant is generally not advisable. Your chances for a healthier baby and a happier pregnancy are substantially greater if you are at your proper weight level when you conceive. Your pre-conception diet should include a plentiful variety of nutritious foods, particularly those rich in iron.
Best Iron-Rich Bets RewardsLiver (3oz.) 7-12 mg.Dried apricots (3 cup) 4.1 mg.Wheat germ (4 cup) 2.5 mg.Tofu (lcake) 2.2 mg.Prune juice (1 cup) 10.5 mg.Asparagus spears (8 average, 3.0 mg.canned, drained), Oysters (4 oz., raw) 6.2 mgBeet greens (1 cup, cooked) 2.8 mg.Peas (1 cup, cooked) 2.9 mg.
Vitamins С and E aid in the assimilation of iron, so be sure you’re eating enough foods with these vitamins or taking supplements.Keep your diet varied. Too much phosphorus can interfere with iron absorption unless your body is being supplied with sufficient calcium. (I’d advise taking a high-potency multiple vitamins and chelated multiple-mineral supplement with breakfast and dinner, just to keep your nutritional bases covered.) Also, keep away from coffee and tea. They, too, can interfere with iron absorption.
ExerciseThe more physically fit you are before becoming pregnant, the better you’ll be able to deal with the stresses of pregnancy. (Think of it as an athletic event, and prepare for it the same way.) Certain exercises are not recommended during pregnancy, but if your body has become used to working out, you’ll be able to get a lot more from the exercises that have been designed for pregnant women.
Drugs And Medications• If you’ve been taking oral contraceptives, it’s advisable to wait at least three months after discontinuing use to become pregnant.• If you are on any medication at all, ask your doctor about the risks involved before attempting to conceive.• Have a complete gynecological examination. (This is particularly important if you or your partner has – or has had – a venereal disease.) Be sure to tell the doctor that you’re thinking of becoming pregnant as you might need immunization against rubella (German measles), in which case, you’ll probably be advised to postpone attempting conception for at least three months to avoid endangering your baby.*1/137/5*
The vestibule inevitably leads into the vaginal canal, the next part of the female genital tract. This is probably the part of the female body that intrigues males the most, for it is really the most vital part in intercourse. But in cold gynaecological terms, it is little more than a tube or sheath that runs upwards and backwards from the vestibule, at an angle of about 85 degrees to the horizontal.
By a miraculous stroke of ingenuity, this is the identical angle of the erect penis. Nature has been very thoughtful, and very kind. Just think about it: what if the angles were diametrically different?
The vagina is approximately 7-9 cm in length and ends in a vault, into which the cervix, the neck part of the uterus or womb, juts.
Normally, the vaginal walls lie close together, but it is a potential cavity able to expand to exceedingly great dimensions if and when the necessity arises.
The walls are corrugated, and covered with pink-coloured tissue which is kept moist by fluids manufactured in its walls continually seeping to the surface.
The corrugations, called rugae, have a two-fold purpose. Physiologically, many elastic fibres are present. These find their most important application during childbirth, when the vaginal tract (during childbirth referred to as the birth canal) must expand to allow the birth of the baby. But fit it does, thanks largely to an enormous blood supply, supple tissues and elastic rugae that can expand to an extent that boggles the eye.
However, for the male whose thoughts are usually a long way from babies when involved in this area, there are more practical applications. The corrugations give added stimulation to intercourse. His penis gains immense and satisfying stimulation as it gently rides over these areas, and it can greatly enhance the quality and sensation during intercourse.
Rugae are inevitably more pronounced before reproduction. Also, the muscles fibres that surround the vagina are robust and taut, and the entire sheath is firm and elastic. That is why intercourse with a female who has not yet reproduced is usually more sensuous for the male partner.
For the female, there is little stimulation occasioned by intra-vaginal containment (that is the horrible technical term meaning the presence of the penis in the vagina). Most of the female’s nervous stimulation occurs in the sensitive tactile areas about the vestibule, the large and small labial lips and, of course of major importance, in the clitoral head itself.
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Contrary to popular belief pregnancy does not last for nine months. It lasts for ten. 60 per cent of births choose to proceed beyond this extension of time. Complications arising in relation to later pregnancies confinement are not usually allowed to proceed beyond 42 weeks. If an expectant mother has not gone into labour by this time, the delivery is usually induced.
Controversy surrounds alternative methods of antenatal care and delivery. The medical profession stands firm in its belief that nature kills babies. A medically supervised pregnancy and delivery are best. Left to nature or untrained alternative health professionals the mortality rate of neonates is as high as 20 per cent.
Flying in the face of this opinion was the finding in 1989 by a Western Australian study. Babies born in the country – where doctors intervened less in the process of birth than doctors in the city – were more likely to be born with less ill effects. Certainly the rate of caesarean sections by Australian doctors is amongst the highest in the world. Either doctors fear more the prospects of litigation in relation to the process of a bungled child birth or mothers wish to fear less the pains of a natural child birth without the benefit of general anesthetics and a caesarean section.
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While about 96% percent of the body is water, protein, and tats, the remaining 4 percent is accounted for by minerals. When we think of minerals, the first one that comes to mind is calcium. Others include magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, iodine, potassium, and sodium. Hard skeletal structure is composed primarily of minerals, but we could not survive or reproduce without adequate and balanced amounts of the minerals that form the nuclei of soft tissues such as muscle and nerve cells.
Minerals are responsible for regulating a few crucial functions, such as nerve responses, and for maintaining the acid-base equilibrium that helps in the absorption of minerals and contraction of muscles.
The best food sources of calcium have typically been milk and dairy products, followed by green leafy vegetables and some types of fish. An excellent low-calorie, high-calcium drink without a trace of caffeine is bancha tea, otherwise known as green twig tea or kukicha tea. A 3—4-ouncc serving of this tea contains more than 700 me of calcium—-or two and one-half times the calcium of the same quantity of whole milk. Bancha is brewed by steeping a few teaspoons of the delicate, cut-up twigs in boiling water for a few minutest. It has a light tea favor, contains virtually no calories, and is a nutritious tonic drink. You can buy bancha tea at a health food store and enjoy a cup or two a day.
Dosage: For severe uterine cramping and nervous irritability, you may do better with calcium supplements to get maximum dosage. If you prefer calcium supplements, my choices among the many calcium compounds are calcium gluconate and boncmc.il tablets. Drink at least one cup of hot or cold unsweetened brancha tea.
Calcium gluconate; For cramps take two 500-mg tablets twice daily; more than four tablets (or 2.000 mg) is not necessarily better, and do not exceed six tablets (3,000 mg) a day. Take calcium with 350 mg of magnesium, 1,000 units of vitamin D, and 100 mg of phosphorus.
Bone meal: Bone meal compounds often come in already balanced formulas. Check the labels to be sure it contains vitamin D, phosphorus, and magnesium, or add supplements as you need them. Begin taking two or three honemeal tablets per day about ten days before your menstrual period, continuing them through your cycle.
Best selection of foods with calcium: Dairy foods are prime sources of calcium, but since their tat content may be implicated in exacerbating symptoms of endometriosis, the wiser course is to reduce intake for ten days a month. Begin lowering the amount of these products a week
before your menstrual period is due and during the cycle. You may want to have toy products one day and alternate these with a limited amount of dairy products the next. Other than milk, cheese, and yogurt, excellent sources are bancha tea, canned salmon (with bones), dams, broccoli, turnips, greens, and kale.
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Women who have difficulty with contraception or who, for religious reasons, do not want to use drugs or devices to control their fertility sometimes find themselves in a situation of despair regarding family planning. They may have as many children as they can cope with and may feel that a hysterectomy is the only way out of their dilemma.
Equally, hysterectomy is sometimes seen as a ‘solution’ to contraception worries and bleeding difficulties for disabled teenage women. When Jane was seventeen, her case went before the Family Court. She was profoundly intellectually disabled and had epilepsy and was unable to communicate with her carers except to smile when happy and to resist when unwilling to do what they asked. Her parents had applied to the Family Court for an order allowing them to consent to a hysterectomy on her behalf. Following a 1992 decision, courts have to give permission in Australia before a non-therapeutic hysterectomy is carried out on an intellectually disabled female. They argued that it would assist in her hygiene, control her epilepsy (which worsened when she menstruated), and could prevent her becoming pregnant. The judge held that it was not in Jane’s best interests to have the operation, although three of the four doctors who gave evidence disagreed. There are no easy answers to dilemmas such as these, for the issues extend well beyond the medical into social areas.
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Alcohol
Alcohol is a mutagen, which means it is a substance that can cause mutations.
Studies have shown that giving male mice alcohol damaged their sperm and increased the number of still-born or miscarried offspring by three times. And female rats given alcohol before ovulation had lower fertility and an increased number of dead and deformed offspring. The most extreme effect of alcohol is demonstrated by the fact that 80 per cent of chronic alcoholic men are sterile and alcohol is a common cause of impotence.
Your partner should wait at least four months to clear his reproductive system from the effects of alcohol before you try to conceive. This is because sperm take about that long to mature. Sperm that mature while alcohol is still in the system may be less healthy and effective.
The other reason to give up drinking well in advance of conception is that when you get pregnant it will be at least two weeks before you know it. Toxins from drinking and smoking alcohol are at their most dangerous during the first few weeks of pregnancy because embryo cell division is at its highest then.
Eliminating Drugs
If you or your partner is addicted to any drugs, it is important that you seek professional help by talking to your doctor. He or she can then refer you to a specialist to help overcome the addiction and to allow time for the drugs to be cleared out of your bodies before conception.
If your doctor has prescribed medication for either you or your partner then ask him or her to check whether the drug has any side-effects which could affect fertility. If the drug is essential then ask if there is another type which does not have those side-effects. Also ask if the medication is absolutely essential and if it is not, you may be able to stop taking it.
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