Improving your health before you conceive can help to boost fertility, give you the best chance of a healthy pregnancy and can go a long way towards ensuring that your baby has the best possible start in life. Consider these steps 3-6 months before conception:

1. If you smoke, stop. Smoking can reduce fertility in both partners and pregnant women who smoke have a higher risk of miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, premature birth and stillbirth.
2. Avoid or limit alcohol – Excess alcohol intake can affect fertility in both partners, and during pregnancy can harm your unborn baby and increase the risk of miscarriage and stillbirth. Since you won’t know you are pregnant in the first few weeks, when your baby’s organs are already starting to form, avoid alcohol when you are trying to conceive.
3. Cut down on caffeine. Too much caffeine during pregnancy may increase your chances of miscarriage, premature birth or a low birthweight baby, so if you’re a big consumer of caffeine, start cutting down as soon as you begin trying to conceive.
4. Optimise your eating habits. Eating well prior to conception can improve fertility and ensure that your nutritional stores are at optimum levels when you fall pregnant. It will also mean that your baby receives all the nutrients he or she needs in their first few weeks if life.
5. Get moving. Being fit will help your body cope with the extra demands of pregnancy and can reduce the risk of developing gestational diabetes (diabetes in pregnancy).
6. Aim for a healthy weight. If you’re carrying excess weight, moderate weight loss (around 5-10% of your weight) can improve fertility and reduce health risks for you and your baby. But avoid overly restrictive diets and rapid weight loss.
7. Take folate and iodine supplements (but check with your doctor if you have thyroid problems). These nutrients are particularly important for your baby’s development and taking folate can reduce the risk of birth defects such as spina bifida.
8. Review your medications (including non-prescription medications and supplements) with your doctor.
9. Organise your pre-pregnancy health checks – speak to your GP about these.

For more information:  Call 1800 882 436 or visit http://www.pregnancybirthbaby.org.au/

The decision on taking any medication during your pregnancy requires a balancing act between the potential benefits and harms. A good example of this challenge is seen with depression.

Depression affects one in ten pregnant women. Treatment options include emotional and practical support, psychological therapy and medications. The most frequently used medications are antidepressants called SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors).

SSRIs are a group of different medications. One, paroxetine, is unsafe for the unborn baby. However the remainder are considered relatively safe during pregnancy.

Weighing up benefits and harms

How do you make a decision on SSRIs? The balancing act involves weighing up the potential benefits and harms for both the unborn baby (foetus) and yourself of taking the medication, versus not taking it.

Ask your doctor questions to help with this task. For example, it’s important to understand that not taking the medication doesn’t provide 100% protection for your unborn baby. It’s estimated that 2 – 4 out of every 100 babies are born with a major defect not related to taking medications. So you may ask: Will the SSRI increase the risk to my unborn baby above this baseline level?

Another important question includes: What are the risks of not taking a SSRI?

Research shows that pregnant women who don’t have depression treated face an increased risk of stillbirth or premature birth. For women themselves, there’s also an increased risk of pregnancy complications, depression after birth (post-natal depression) and suicide attempts.

After talking to your doctor the key messages you may learn include:

• It’s essential to treat depression
• SSRIs may be the most effective treatment and are relatively safe
• Any decision involves weighing up potential benefits and harms for your unborn baby and yourself
• If you decide to take a SSRI, use the lowest effective dose

More information: Speak to your GP, visit www.beyondblue.org.au

Do pregnant women need, or should they be given the flu vaccination? Read on to find out…

In Australia flu vaccination is recommended for:

1. All women planning a pregnancy, and
2. Women who will be in the second or third trimester of pregnancy during the influenza season (June to October)

… according to the 2008 Australian Immunisation Guidelines.

Vaccination protects the mother and foetus from serious infection and reduces the risk of being hospitalised.Recent studies have also shown that flu vaccination protects the baby after birth. Influenza antibodies from the mother cross the placenta to the baby. In the first 6 months or so, babies with vaccinated mothers have 5 times less hospital admissions for influenza and 3 times fewer acute respiratory infections.

Vaccination during pregnancy is safe. The vaccine contains dead virus particles which cannot cause the flu. Side effects are usually minor.

However, only 5% of pregnant women are currently getting vaccinated.

It is not too late to get have your flu injection. The peak of the flu season is usually July to September. A single injection is required every year and takes about 2 weeks to work.

See your doctor to discuss your circumstances as soon as possible.

• Australian Immunisation Handbook, 9th Edition, 2008
• Fight Flu website

Disclaimer:

• Please note this information was correct at time of publication.
• For up to date information, speak to your doctor.

Health authorities have recently issued warnings for listeriosis (infection with listeria bacteria) which can be a serious risk for pregnant women.

Listeriosis is usually caught from contaminated food. It is generally a mild infection causing fever, headache, muscle aches and tiredness.

However those at high risk, such as pregnant women, those with a weakened immune system and older people, can develop septicaemia (blood poisoning), meningitis (brain infection) and even death. In pregnancy, it can also cause miscarriage, premature birth and stillbirth.

How to reduce your risk of listeriosis

Follow these rules to reduce your risk of infection:

• • Cook food thoroughly to kill the bacteria.
  • Eat freshly cooked or freshly prepared foods.
  • Refrigerate leftovers promptly and eat within a day.
  • Reheat foods to ‘steaming hot’ to kill the bacteria.
  • When eating out, order hot meals and avoid smorgasbords and salad bars.

These foods are at higher risk of contamination and are best avoided by pregnant women and others at risk:

• • • • http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/foodmatters/listeria/index.cfm
      • http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/PublicHealth/Infectious/a-z.asp

Disclaimer:

• • • Please note this information was correct at time of publication.
    • For up to date information, speak to your doctor.