Preconception Introduction and “To Do” List
We are passionate about all new life. Whether you are planning for your first baby, having another child, or are struggling to conceive or carry a baby full term, we are here to hold your hand on this wonderful journey.
Preconception health refers to a woman’s well-being before she conceives. It involves understanding how existing health conditions and risk factors might impact you or your unborn baby if you became pregnant.
We believe preparation for conception is key to having an optimal pregnancy and birth. Over the past five decades, we have been exposed to environmental toxins, heightened levels of stress, poor lifestyle choices and over-refined nutrient-deficient foods. As a result, infertility and miscarriages have skyrocketed, and more and more children are born with an increased susceptibility to “modern day” diseases and disorders.
It is vital that preconception healthcare is given priority to ensure both parents are in optimal health prior to conception. Mothers2B recommends 6-12 months of preconception healthcare support prior to conceiving, if possible.
This involves looking at all aspects of your own health. We specifically focus on the following sections:
DIET AND NUTRITION. Understanding your diet and the value of optimal nutrition.
LIFESTYLE AND EXERCISE. The importance of managing your lifestyle, exercise and stress.
TOXINS, AVOIDANCE AND DETOXIFICATION. Understanding how all toxins are detrimental to your health and what you can do to reduce and remove toxicity.
DIET, LIFESTYLE AND TOXIC ASSESSMENT. This will enable you to see where you are doing well and where needs some attention.
NUTRIENT DEFICIENCY SYMPTOM ASSESSMENT. Looking at current symptoms and possible nutrient deficiencies.
GUT HEALTH. Imperative for optimizing digestion, absorption, building a healthy microbiome and clearing toxins.
OBESITY AND WEIGHT MANAGEMENT. The importance of weight management, blood sugar management, and why it is so important to your own health and the health of your future baby.
ADRENAL STRESS. How to manage stress and the impact it can have on you and baby.
IMMUNE HEALTH. Build a strong immune system from within. Essential to protect you and your baby.
SUPPORTING LIVER AND BODY DETOXIFICATION. Essential to eliminating toxins prior to conception.
HORMONAL IMBALANCE. Looking at hormones and their impact on conception, pregnancy and birth.
To help prevent overwhelm, we have created a very specific guide for you to follow, in an order that offers you the very best chances for a successful conception, pregnancy and birth.
Optimizing preconception health is the most important section in this website and following our specific guide in order is vitally important. For example, if the gut is not healthy and is “leaky” prior to detoxing, you may struggle to eliminate toxins successfully from the body. Resorbing toxins released from cells will further put stress on the body and liver.
Start to move through our “to do” list below. Each section will take time, commitment and patience.
Here is the order in which to work through our preconception section to best prepare you for a successful and healthy conception:
Complete the Diet, Lifestyle and Toxin (DLT) Assessment.
This looks at current diet, lifestyle and toxic exposure and will help you understand which areas you need to focus on.
This will give you clear guidance on how to improve all aspects of your diet, lifestyle, and toxic avoidance.
Dietary, Lifestyle, Toxin
Online Self Assessment
Mothers2B aims to prepare your family for life’s greatest blessing: a successful conception, pregnancy, and birth, and ultimately a healthy baby.
We believe that the greatest influencing factors on your health and the health of your baby involve your diet (D), lifestyle (L) and toxin (T) exposure, and we have created the DLT Self Assessment for you to assess these aspects of your life. There is no better time to adopt a healthier change!
Complete the Nutrient Deficiency Symptom Assessment (NDSA).
This looks at your current health symptoms and possible nutrient deficiencies. The NDSA then provides several nutrient rich foods and supplemental packages for you, if required.
Nutrient Deficiency Symptom Assessment
Free Online Self Assessment
Mothers2B has developed the Nutrient Deficiency Symptom Assessment (NDSA) to help you identify your deficient nutrients. Increasing such nutrients may improve your nutrient status, improve or rectify your symptoms and contribute to good health. This is very important as the nutrients in your body are essential to your health and your baby's health. The NDSA provides three pages of the essential 29 nutrients the body requires, each with associated deficiency symptoms for you to work through carefully. There is no simpler way to find out what nutrients you may be lacking, but, most importantly, what you can do to reverse those deficiencies, support your symptoms, and lead to optimal health.
Purchase our “Understanding Nutrients” book as an E-book
This will help motivate, educate, and inspire you to learn all about the essential nutrients you need for optimizing your health.
To find out more about these specific nutrients please purchase our “Understanding Nutrients” ebook here. In this comprehensive guide, we embark on a journey through the essential building blocks of health and well-being. We explore not just the biochemical roles of each nutrient but also how to obtain them through nourishing food.
Support the gut with specific foods and follow our gut protocol
Build a healthy gut that digests food and absorbs nutrients well, has a strong immune system, and eliminates wastes and toxins optimally. It is also essential to build a healthy microbiome.
PRECONCEPTION
If you are overweight, please follow our obesity, blood sugar control, and weight management protocol
It will provide a step-by-step protocol to help you lose weight, as well as educate you on how to sustain this weight loss.
PRECONCEPTION
Manage stress and reduce its impact on the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis
We reside in an exceedingly fast-paced world, where our modern lifestyle presents numerous remarkable advantages. While there are benefits to these advancements in technology, they can wreak havoc on our health and as a society, we are more stressed than ever before.
Learn more about managing stress and reducing health impacts here.
PRECONCEPTION
Boost your immune system and secretory IgA levels
Our body possesses a remarkable ability to defend itself against various pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites, through our immune system. However, when we fall ill, it is often due to our immune system being overwhelmed by these pathogens, which invade our body and provoke a range of issues, including inflammation, damage, and toxicity.
PRECONCEPTION
The big detox
Supporting the liver and full body detoxification
Clear all detoxification channels and boost your own detox by avoiding all toxins and increase function and toxin elimination.
PRECONCEPTION
Look at your hormones
This section is for all moms and dads looking to conceive and to have a successful pregnancy and birth. The human body is highly complex, and the impact of poor choices can massively impact our hormonal health and with that the ability to have a successful conception, pregnancy and birth.
PRECONCEPTION
Once all the above have been completed successfully and you and your partner are in the best health possible, it’s time to start trying to conceive. Please ensure you are tracking your cycle, so you are aware of your fertile period. We recommend utilizing charting or if you need assistance, optimizing tracking through the use of a technology device such as Inito Fertility.
Congratulations on your conception
We shall now be supporting you via our month-by-month pregnancy section and beyond.
Continuing to prioritize your health with a nutrient-dense diet, holistic lifestyle and supplementation (where necessary) will give you the very best chances for a successful pregnancy and birth and the very best start in life for your baby.