The happiest moment in a woman's life is knowing that she is capable of getting pregnant and giving birth to a healthy child. However, not all women are able to get pregnant naturally. Some are referred as infertile while others need medical treatment to conceive. Surgical/medical treatments are expensive and not all are successful; some will even do more harm to your body. The best way is always the natural way and it starts with the food intake to boost the woman's fertility.
Firstly, being either overweight or underweight can reduce your chances of getting pregnant. Try to reach your ideal weight. Overweight women have more pregnancy and birth complications whilst underweight women are more likely to have a low-birth-weight baby.
Eating right means eating a balanced diet and avoid taking foods that is high in fat and sugar. Eat a variety of foods while trying to conceive, which includes:
• Fruits and vegetables - these can be fresh, frozen, tinned, dried or a glass of juice. Take at least five portions a day. Fruits and vegetables contain vitamin C which helps your body to absorb iron, an essential nutrient in preparation for pregnancy.
• Carbohydrate foods such as bread, pasta, rice and potatoes. Switch white flour to whole grains which help improve the body's digestion and overall health.This can improve your chance of getting pregnant.
• Protein such as lean meat and chicken, fish, eggs and pulses (beans and lentils).
• Fish, including some oily fish, but do not have more than two portions of oily fish a week. This includes fresh tuna, sardines and trout. Do not eat raw fish eg. sushi, to prevent food poisoning. Certain types of fish are high in mercury, which can be harmful to your unborn baby. Mercury can accumulate in your body and linger there for more than a year. So it is best to avoid them such as shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and tilefish while you are trying to get pregnant.
• Dairy foods such as milk, cheese and yoghurt, which contain calcium.
• Iron rich foods, such as red meat, pulses, dried fruit, bread, green vegetables and fortified breakfast cereals, to build up your resources of iron in preparation for pregnancy.
• Vitamin supplements. Since most women do not get enough nutrients from their daily diet, start taking vitamin supplements when trying to conceive, which includes the B vitamins, folic acid and zinc. These vitamins help to reduce the risk of birth defects and are essential to a healthy menstrual cycle. Get at least 400 micrograms of folic acid a day.
• Stop alcohol drinking and smoking as these can affect ovulation and may cause infertility. Alcohol inhibits the body's absorption of all the important nutrients needed for a healthy body to conceive whilst smoking and drugs can lead to miscarriage, premature birth, and low-birth-weight babies. In addition, research suggests that any tobacco use can affect your fertility and lower your partner's sperm count. In fact, even secondhand smoke may affect your chances of getting pregnant.
• It is time to stop drinking coffee or switch to decaf. A few studies has showed that excessive consumption of caffeine and soda may lead to fertility problem. It is also a suspected cause of miscarriage in the first three months of pregnancy, minimise your ability to absorb iron which is needed plenty for pregnancy, and increase your risk for stillbirth.
• Consult your doctor of any medication or drugs you are currently taking whether it is safe to continue while you are trying to get pregnant.
• Drink eight glasses of filtered water to help flush out excess toxins.
