Hello everyone, Dr. Boyd here. Welcome back to parently. Today we're talking about preparing for pregnancy. So what I'd like you to do is pull up a cup of tea, or a cup of coffee. I have coffee because I'm a coffee guy. And I'd like you to think about nine specific points that will prepare you for an upcoming pregnancy.

It's important to remember 50% of women prepare for pregnancy. 50% of women do not. That means that a large amount of women are talking to you prepare for pregnancy. nine points this is not an all inclusive list, but these are nine points that I think are very important for you to prepare for pregnancy. Pregnancy point number one, enter pregnancy interval 18 months That's the magic number that's from the end of one pregnancy to the beginning of the next pregnancy. Pregnancy interval less than 18 months increases the chances for that second pregnancy to have problems specifically, preterm birth.

We don't want that. So if you had your optimum measurement months, it's 18. Those women that have Irish twins, that's two babies born within a year. So baby born in January, not months later, born in October, those women tend to have more problems. And if you wait 18 months, planning for pregnancy point number two, body mass index, BMI. I encourage you right now, to go to ask Google what your BMI is.

Now, the BMI calculator on Google you can find one that uses pound and inches but some of them use kilograms. in centimeters, when you calculate your BMI, we want that number to be less than 35. The heavier you are or the shorter you are relative to your way your BMI goes up. We know that obesity is the number one health problem now in America, especially in reproductive women, BMI greater than 35 increases your chances dramatically, that you're going to have problems with pregnancy. Specifically, increased risk for hypertension that's elevated blood pressure, increased risk for diabetes, increased risk for stillborn that means your baby died inside increased risk for sensory instruction. If you have an option to lose weight by exercising and decreasing your calories to get your BMI less than 35 I encourage you to do that.

So planning for pregnancy number three, nutrition water and caffeine. These are not in any specific order. But we're going to talk about three relational issues for you and an upcoming pregnancy. What is the optimal amount of calories 1600 to 1800 calories per day. If you have a BMI of over 35, and I just address that, you need to decrease your calories less than 1600 calories. But a normal reproductive woman should have a calorie intake of approximately 1600 to 1800 per day.

When you become pregnant, you need to increase that by 300 calories. If you nurse you need to increase it by 500 calories. Water, I encourage you to drink water. I want you to go out right now or get on Amazon and order a cool waterhole. This is a hydro flask it's blue. That doesn't necessarily mean if you drink this, you're gonna end up with a baby boy, but you might.

If you buy a pink one, maybe you'll end up with a baby Girl, but I want you to drink water 60 to 100 ounces per day, may as well get the habit of it because when you get pregnant, you need to drink water. Why? Because you increase your risk for problems like kidney infections, bladder infections, even potentially preterm labor. If you don't drink enough water, caffeine, I'm drinking a cup right now I like caffeinated. My screen says I like caffeinated. But you don't want to drink too much caffeine.

May as well get in the habit of it now because when you're pregnant, we want you to have two cups of coffee or tea per day or less. That's about 200 milligrams, that's the max. We do not recommend that you drink soda. It has a tremendous amount of sugar. People often relate say how many cans of soda can I have? Well, I don't want to that any lie because of the sugar.

And then the diet sodas have a spark team in them even coke Zero are a little bit concerned about, could this be a negative for your pregnancy, I encourage you to think about what you're going to do when you get pregnant. Exercise pregnancy plan number four. We don't want you to start exercise. When you get pregnant. We want you to start exercise before you get pregnant. What is the optimal amount of exercise, that's everybody's gas.

But if you simply walk 30 minutes per day, swim 30 minutes per day run 30 minutes per day, do that three times per week. We feel that is a minimum amount that you should perform and carry that into your pregnancy. When you get pregnant, we don't want you to start that it increases your chances for problems such as shortness of breath and other issues. We do know that if you exercise throughout pregnancy, you lower your Assyrian section rate. Planning for pregnancy point number five medications are your medications say The FDA quantifies knot medications into categories that potentially can cause birth defects. A, B, C, D an x, we feel very comfortable that medications that are categorized as a are safe for your pregnancy.

We know for sure that medications or category x are bad for your baby. We want you to be informed prior to getting pregnant whether those medications are ABCD or x. Please talk to your healthcare provider. Planning for pregnancy point number six folic acid, very, very important to decrease the risk for neural tube defects in your baby. That's something called spinal bifida that's where the spinal canal doesn't form correctly. We know that folic acid pre conceptually decreases neural tube defects 300 to 400 miles grams is what is recommended, however, let's be safe.

Let's simply take one milligram of folic acid per day. Your prenatal vitamins will have folic acid in them. But I always encourage women to take extra so take your prenatal vitamin, take your folic acid, every day, free conceptually, vitamins, specifically prenatal vitamins, many women are on vitamins, but I want you on a prenatal live and watch this. Look at that. That's how fast you can get a prenatal vitamin. You simply have to go to the drugstore, you can go to Walmart, but it needs to say prenatal vitamin, and it needs to say this every day.

In other words, you need to take this every day. You're going to take this pre pregnancy, you're going to take it throughout your pregnancy and you're going to take it after your pregnancy. My whatever you like. This has got a pretty emblem that's fine by that one by something you like buy something that tastes good buy something That doesn't make you nauseated. You may have to try two or three, but it's okay. Take one of these every day.

Planning for pregnancy point eight vaccines, very controversial subject, not only in my family and many families, many health care providers. What do we do? Do we take vaccines? Do we not take vaccines? When do we take vaccines? This is a very personal decision.

The FDA, American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology has their own scientific evidence of what they recommend for vaccines. I highly encourage you to talk to your health care provider. Before you can see. Let me give you an example. MMR mumps, measles, and rubella. You received that when you're about five years old.

We thought that it was a lifetime immunity. We now know that rubella many women in their reproductive lives are not rubella, immune, that means that they get rubella Which is German measles, they get sick. So if you're not immune, we recommend the vaccine, a Kog recommends the vaccine after your pregnancy. But again, if we're talking about pre pregnancy planning, you can take that before you can see three months prior to conception. But you don't know unless you get a blood test. And it will tell you if you are immune or not immune.

Please talk to your healthcare provider, the flu vaccine, it's now recommended that every American take the flu vaccine when I started practice, it was only for high risk individuals. But now it's for everybody. And you get that in September or October, all the way through March. It's important that you talk to your healthcare provider. Do you have questions? Remember, the flu vaccine is an educated guess of what strain of the flu is going to infect us this coming winter.

So it ranges and if Efficiency effectiveness against the virus 30 to 60%. So that means a lot of the flu vaccines that come the flu vaccine does not help planning for pregnancy point number nine. This only involves a small percentage of you women listening to this video, and that's genetic screen. It's important though, if you have a family history, or you have a personal history of a baby that has had trisomy, in other words, genetic abnormalities, should you be evaluated through genetic testing. That's something that you need to ask your family members so that you get a good history. Please talk to your healthcare provider on whether you are a candidate for genetic testing.

Nine points, these are not all inclusive, these are helpful, but I encourage you to follow these nine and then develop any further information, any questions that we apparently can help you with, move forward with empowerment of being pregnant and knowing the information that will help you as a healthy woman.