#102 Want to get pregnant in 2024? 3 Things to do first

Welcome to the holistic health podcast, beautiful humans. If a professional polished, well-educated podcast is what you're after, then move right on. If, however, you love unfiltered banter, unedited bloopers, authentic heart sharing and a very generous dash of holistic health education, then you're in the right place. Hello, friends. Welcome back to the holistic health podcast, Amy. Hello. How are you? Good. I'm so good. How are you? I am feeling really excited because I gosh, don't I say this every episode? It's more that I guess I have been very much deeply in the world of fertility and preconception care and pregnancy, a lot lately just by pure nature of the clinical work that I'm doing. I'm not pregnant in case anyone was like, oh, you should pregnant. I'm not, however, I am very, very surrounded at the moment by people on this journey at lots of various stages, including what we are talking about today, which is very much centered, I guess, around more of the decision of, hey, I want to have a baby in 2024, or that is something that potentially is on my radar. And now what do I need to do about that? Or what can I do about that? Because it's something that I try my very best and I know you would as well, Amy, is to get people planning as far in advance as they can because it makes all of the difference. So I think where we might start is I guess where I start with a lot of people who I'm having this conversation with, which is actually a reframe around what it means to do preconception care. So for a lot of women, once they decide, I want to have a baby, there's almost this frantic rush or sense of urgency and desperation that can come over you in terms of, I need to just start trying now. I don't want to miss any month of opportunity. And while I so understand that, and of course, there are the realities of age that has a influence amongst many things. And also, I would say that preconception care is absolutely not a waste of time. It's not a nothing space. It really is an investment of both your chances of falling pregnant, your chances of holding that pregnancy full term, the health of you through the pregnancy and after the pregnancy. And most importantly to most women, the health of that baby and the health of that child for the rest of their life because what we're doing in this preconception care period is we are laying the foundations for the literal blueprint of that child and that child's health. And by the time you are already pregnant, the degree of influence you have over that has largely passed, not that it's none, but a lot of that determination in terms of the DNA quality which comes from the egg and sperm quality is a preconception care window of time and a preconception care job. And so I really really love to make sure that people are well educated and well informed around that so they can see the value in this and not see it as a missed opportunity each month. I think that's so important. I mean, if women really understood just how much you can set your pregnancy, but also your child's health for the rest of their life up in preparing in an ideal way, I think everyone would do it. And we're having this conversation today really, I guess to get you in the mindset of if you are planning a family, the more time you can invest in doing that, the better the outcome. And when we think about time, you know, it's never too early to start. Let's put it that way. And especially if you are dealing with health conditions of any sort, those are things that you want to either get resolved or to a point where they are stable and you're thriving in their management before you turn your attention to something like this. But just from purely a fertility perspective, when we think about the journey of the egg, you know, there's a lot of, I guess, numbers bandied around. And as Nat said, it's never too late to start working on, you know, egg health and your health and preconception planning. But when we follow the journey of an egg through its development, you're looking at just roughly a year. So you've got actually two phases of egg development. There is what's called the pre-antral phase, which is when, you know, you've got this really amazing development of the egg from the primordial stage through to primary and then into secondary follicle stages. And how interesting is this? That takes about 290 days or 10 regular menstrual cycles. So about the same length as a pregnancy, which I think is just absolutely fascinating. And then so that particular stage of egg development is completely independent of going at a trope and hormone, which of course is developing the follicles itself in the ovary. So most people think about the time period, you know, that comes after the pre-antral phase. And so this is the going at a trope and dependent phase and can take anywhere from two menstrual cycles up to four. So that's why you would probably hear people say, you know, you need to do at least two months or at least four months prior to conception, because in that particular phase, that's when a lot of the nutrition is being onboarded into the sac and will be present to nourish the baby in those first five or six weeks of life. So it's never too late to start, but as you can see, it's also never too early. And you know, I personally feel like four months prior is like a bare minimum. And if you can plan a year ahead, that would be an absolute fantasy dream come true. And if you're somewhere in the middle, that's absolutely fine too, because every step of the way does make a difference. Yeah, I agree. I think it's really about being as prepared as you can, but also if you, if yeah, anything is better than nothing. And also if you have the opportunity to, and you're hearing this at the right time, then I think it is really good to just know that there is a length of time that I guess is optimal as well. So I think, you know, something else that I really like to encourage women to do is to tune into their nervous system and do a little bit of a stock take, you know, and what I mean by that is going from, you know, I guess, maiden to motherhood and traversing that huge journey is something that I think is best, like is best approached when you have a nervous system that feels grounded. And that doesn't mean that it's going to feel grounded 24/7. But what I mean by that is, you know, we say often on this podcast and I'm across Instagram and I'm sure many of our clients are listening and we've probably said it to you as well, that when it comes to fertility and hormones, your, your, your body has the best chance at being fertile and hormonally balanced when it feels safe. And what safety feels like to you is going to be different to what safety feels like for me. And safety is, is communicated to your body in lots of different ways, your environment, your relationships, your exercise, your nutrition, your supplementation, your nutritional status, you know, your, all these different elements. And I actually think that when we ask ourselves where in our life, where in my life am I feeling that my nervous system or my sense of grounding, stability, security, I guess that that feminine flow, that surrender, that calm, where am I not feeling that or where am I feeling tricked into the opposite in terms of holding or constrictional contraction. And for some people that will show up in how they're moving their body, you might be doing haves of heat training or really pushing yourself and that might be something that needs to shift. Or it might be that from a nutritional perspective, you know that you're not quite nailing the nourishing yourself and you're skipping meals or you're having foods, you know, don't sit super well with you or there's not as much intentionality around that. Or it might be in your boundaries or lack of them. And it's there's so many examples of this, but I do believe that if we take time to actually tune in and be honest with ourselves and sit in reflection, which hopefully over the Christmas and year period, you had some chance to do, but also that is available to you at any point in time. We are an ately intuitive, emotionally intelligent aware beings when we have the space and time and environment and resources in order to tune into that. And so my encouragement would be if you are in a space where you are thinking of becoming a mum in the next 12 months or two years or whatever it might be, then actually taking stock of that and getting really honest with yourself around the areas or the things in your life that need to start to change. You don't have to overhaul everything in one go, but need to start to change and think about, you know, what needs to change, but also what do you need in order to create that change, which is going to look different for everybody. And if we need to convince you of this nervous system work any further, then Amy, please share with us the impact that mum's nervous system has on us. Oh, man, I'm looking at this and I'm like, I don't know if I want to say these things because I don't want to actually add to the nervous system stress, but I think knowledge is power. And I think it's really, I'm going to couch this in a way that I hope drives you to do an assessment as Nat suggested and start to implement some changes so that your nervous system is going to be supportive for both yourself and your child. So, you know, from a, I guess, parenting perspective, when you're pregnant, your nervous system and the neuro transmitters, it's producing actually programs your baby's nervous system. So a stressed mother will end up producing a child whose nervous system is a lot more fragile and sensitive to stress hormones. And of course, I mean, there's no better practice for parenting than getting your nervous system sorted out because trust me, if you're dysregulated now, when you have a small tiny human being with all the best and worst parts of your personality and your partners, well, good luck, my friend, may the foresee with you. So this is almost in preparation for, you know, a good parenting experience as well. But if we dial it back a little bit from a fertility perspective, we know that stress hormones can disrupt fertility and this could impact your ability to get pregnant or the outcomes of your pregnancy. So, you know, our body is always striving for our survival. So if we are producing stress hormones, the body in its innate wisdom to protect you will actually delay follicle maturation and delay ovulation. And as a result, we know stress is associated with decreased conception rates and longitudinal cycles. We also know that stress hormones like cortisol affect ovarian reserve and endometrial resetivity. In the IVF space, we see less eggs being retrieved, less fertilization occurring and less pregnancy and live birth rates. And we also see stress hormones playing into increased risk of early miscarriage and preeclampsia and affecting fetal growth and premature birth and postnatal developmental delays too. But the good news is if you take nuts advice and you do a nervous system audit and you start to install practices and I guess I really look at your lifestyle and nutrition and all of that environmental feedback, all of that can shift. And there was some interesting research actually that showed when a mindfulness intervention is implemented, conception outcomes improve and you see higher pregnancy rates. You also see reduced stress reactivity in the infants and improved emotional temperament, immune function and cognitive development for them later in life. And so it truly is, you know, there's a saying where you should eat like you're already pregnant. But I think as an extension of that, you should behave as if you're already a parent and really thinking about how your overall health and well-being not only sets an example to your child but influences them in all of the nonverbal ways as well. So all of that being said in terms of the investment of time, if you have that in front of you and the kinds of things that you really want to think about as far as preparing for pregnancy goes, I couldn't recommend enough having a plan. So in clinical practice when Nat and I working one-on-one with clients, the time that you're putting in in preparation for pregnancy isn't a waste. You are investing in your pregnancy outcome at the health of your pregnancy, your experience as a mum, not just during that pregnancy but also after baby is born because of the impact on your child's health. And I think the way to think about it is you're not waiting to conceive, you're not waiting to get pregnant. You are actively preparing and paving the way and setting yourself and your future child or children if you want to have more than one for optimal health and well-being and success. And all of the best kind of outcomes, the hopes and dreams that I think every parent has for their child. Healthy, happy and in a position to pursue whatever their heart's desire. Would you agree, Nat? I wholeheartedly agree and I think as an extension of that when it comes to planning and having a plan, I think something that's super important is that you surround yourself with support that feels like it's inspiring to you or grounding to you and that it doesn't overwhelm you or feel like it dysregulates your nervous system further. And so everyone's going to be drawn to different people, different modalities, different types of practitioners, different forms of learning and getting support. We're going to have different budgets that feel safe for us to invest in at different seasons with different goals. And so I really think that it's important to not go the journey alone, but actually to have some form of support in your corner, whatever that may look like for you, and there are lots of different options. And something that I know we both feel so passionate about pre-conception care and we both offer one-to-one consultation containers where that absolutely is the goal for some people. And it's a very thorough deep dive into your health, your preconception care journey, your fertility and optimizing all of that. And that's absolutely a fantastic option for many women. And that feels like what many women are drawn towards and feel is going to be most supportive for them. And also where I saw a gap, I guess, in my offerings. And also generally, I guess, in the market for lack of a better term, was something that taught women the foundations from a very evidence-based, practical, non-fear-mongering, empowering, inspiring way that was very affordable and something where it allowed people to make really meaningful change and progress without necessarily investing at a higher cost or a higher time commitment than they felt ready for. And so what I have actually done is I've packaged up many of the foundations and many of the real key cornerstone recommendations that I give to my one-to-one fertility clients on their preconception care journey and have basically created it into a beautiful, beautiful guide, which is called sacred seeds, your holistic preconception care guide. And within that guide, there are lots and lots and lots of different elements that are included. I take you through why preconception care really matters. I talk you through how long to prepare and the benefits of those time frames. I also give you some recommendations around preconception care blood testing in terms of what to test, when to test, why, and also some options around if you're struggling to navigate that conversation with your primary health care physician, how can you access that testing outside of that container? I also walk you through nutrition for fertility, so what to focus on, what to perhaps limit or avoid. And of course, answer a lot of the burning questions around copy and chocolate and alcohol and lots more. There's also bonus tips around nutrition in terms of creating a healthy balance plate, getting enough protein and what that actually looks like. There's some high-protein fertility-friendly breakfast ideas. There's also a peak inside my clinical naturopathic toolkit for preconception care, including tips around buying a prenatal and additional supplements that can help support a fertility journey based on evidence and lots of clinical experience. There's lifestyle recommendations in terms of, you know, from what you put on your skin to how you move your body, sleep optimisation, and a little bit of a self-care toolkit that I've pulled together for you. And there are also, there's also a little bit of a road map, a preconception road map that I've created for you to help you start the process of implementing the information in the guide. So it doesn't all just feel like a big lump of overwhelming information that we actually pull it together at the end and go, okay, let's focus on a couple, like, you know, one or two things each week and each week we build on the week prior and it ends up, you know, creating your own, I guess, DIY to an extent with support preconception care road map. And I've also included in there a weekly meal planning template, like a blank template for you to use to help get in the practice of, you know, planning your nutrition based on the recommendations. And there's also an option to upgrade and get my hormone rescue recipe ebook, which is a beautiful way to also support your hormones if you're needing some extra recipe inspiration. And then there's also a weekly reflection journal template, which I feel like is a really beautiful thing to have in this journey because it allows you to celebrate the small wins that you're having, see the progress in front of you and reflect on your view on what patterns are emerging that you might need to focus on and get further support with. So I, I loved putting this together. I feel it is a really valuable resource for anyone who is on that preconception road map or journey, I should say. And it is something that you can access at a very affordable price on my website. And we'll also include it in the, in the show notes. And I would be so grateful if you share it with anyone in your world that you feel could benefit from this, because as I said, this is not just about you and your health, it's actually an investment in your future child's health. And I think there's so much that we have done wrong in our culture around the health of our children in the future. And this is one thing that we can absolutely turn around and do right. Mm, Matt, you know what, I've seen some of your guides and recipe books. And I can tell you that Nat pours so much love and so much time and so much energy into these. And I think if you are in a season of even just thinking about having a baby, but especially if you're like definitely having one in the near future, I couldn't think of a better place to start to get you set up for success than her preconception guide. So share it wide for and share it wide. Yes, thank you. Appreciate that. And everyone, thank you for being with us. We love sharing all of this information with you. And we're very much looking forward to connecting with you next week with another episode. Bye for now. You've been listening to the holistic health podcast with Amy and Nat. If you love this episode, then make sure you share it on Instagram and give us a tag. If you'd like to help us spread the holistic health message far and wide, then we would also so appreciate it if you left a rating and review. This helps us more than you know. And don't forget to come and say hi over on Instagram. See you next week.