How to Prepare Your Body For Pregnancy
Did you know that your journey to a healthy pregnancy and baby begins well before you conceive? By focusing on nutrition before pregnancy, you can positively influence everything from egg quality and how a baby’s genes are expressed, to the health of your pregnancy and postpartum recovery.
In this article, we’ll explore why preconception nutrition and health is so important, when to begin preparing for pregnancy, and 7 key areas to focus on as you prepare for this next chapter in your life.
Why Preconception Nutrition Matters
Most advice on nutrition for growing a healthy baby focuses on what to eat once you become pregnant, but research shows that preconception nutrition has even more profound impact on pregnancy outcomes and your baby’s development than nutrition during pregnancy. 1
Let’s explore four key reasons why prioritizing nutrition before conception makes such a difference:
Optimizing Egg Quality - Your nutrition and lifestyle choices directly influence egg quality, which plays a vital role in shaping your baby’s health—not just at birth, but throughout their entire life. Healthy egg quality improves the likelihood of a successful pregnancy, lowers the risk of chromosomal abnormalities, and supports healthier genetic expression for your child’s long-term health.
Did you know an egg is affected by your nutrition and overall health for up to eight months before ovulation / pregnancy? That means the choices you make now can set the stage for your baby’s future health.
Supporting Early Development - The earliest and most complex stages of your baby’s development—those crucial first eight weeks—depend almost entirely on the nutrient reserves you’ve built before pregnancy. During this time, before the placenta fully forms, your baby relies on these stored nutrients rather than the nutrients you’re consuming in early pregnancy. Since this is also when developmental complications are most likely to arise, preconception nutrition is essential for laying a strong foundation for a healthy pregnancy. Additionally, adequate preconception nutrition supports the proper formation of the placenta, which is vital for delivering nutrients and oxygen to your growing baby.
Reducing Pregnancy Complications - Many pregnancy complications, like early miscarriage or conditions such as preeclampsia, often trace back to issues with egg quality, implantation, early development or placental formation —all of which are deeply impacted by your preconception nutrient levels. By addressing these factors in advance, you can help reduce the likelihood of complications, setting the stage for a smoother pregnancy.
Enhancing Pregnancy and Postpartum Health - Proper nutrition before conception lays the groundwork for a healthy pregnancy and postpartum experience. For instance, supporting hormone balance and mineral levels with nutrition before pregnancy can reduce the risk for postpartum depression and thyroid (metabolic) issues, ensuring a more positive experience after birth.
As you can see, focusing on your nutrition before pregnancy isn’t just a good idea—it’s one of the most empowering ways to support your baby’s heal and prepare your body for this life-changing journey. By laying a solid foundation now, you’re setting yourself and your baby up for a vibrant and healthy future.
When to Start Preconception Care
Your nutrition, stress levels, environment and lifestyle affect egg quality and development for 8 months before conception, with the final three months being the most sensitive and important. When creating your preconception planning timeline, you want to consider this window of time along with your current health status.
The following is what I typically recommend, based on where someone is in their health journey —
If you have health imbalances: For woman that have health challenges like nutrient deficiencies, hormone imbalances, a slow metabolism, gut issues, or have a history of over eating, I generally recommend working on nutrition and health for 12 months (or more) prior to conception. This allows you to bring your body back into balance and then have several months of being well nourished before pregnancy, which supports egg quality and building up your nutrient stores.
If you’re in good health: For woman that are already in good health but want to optimize their pregnancy, I recommend a 6 month time frame to support nutrient stores and egg quality.
If you’re pressed for time: For women that don’t have the ability to plan this far ahead, perhaps you’re just learning this information fairly close to when you need to conceive, I recommend at least 3-4 months. Ideally 4, as this gives you a month to make dietary and lifestyle changes and 3 months of good nourishment before conception, which is when the egg is most sensitive to your nutrition and lifestyle choices.
If you’re already pregnant: Now if you are just seeing this and you’re already pregnant, know that it’s never too late to benefit from nutritional changes that will support your pregnancy and baby, even if you are in the third trimester. Every step towards better nutrition counts. If you would like my support with prenatal nutrition you can connect with me here.
Preconception Care for a Healthy Pregnancy
Now that you understand the importance of preconception care, let’s explore 7 key areas to start focusing on to help prepare your body for a healthy pregnancy —
1. Build Up Nutrient Stores
The nutrients you store before pregnancy play a crucial role in fueling the earliest stages of your baby’s development, often before you even know you're pregnant. Building up reserves of essential nutrients such as folate, choline, magnesium, iodine, retinol, and omega-3 fatty acids helps support critical processes like DNA synthesis, brain development, hormone production, and organ formation. For example, low folate levels can increase the risk of neural tube defects, while inadequate iodine intake can affect thyroid function, potentially leading to developmental delays and metabolic issues for both you and your baby. Additionally, choline is vital for brain and spinal cord development. Ensuring that these key nutrients are in optimal supply before conception helps lay a strong foundation for both your health and the health of your baby.
Beginner Tips: I recommend focusing on getting these nutrients from whole food sources rather than supplementing, as supplements can lead to more nutrient imbalances if not taken correctly, which is unfortunately too easy to do! For example, increasing magnesium intake without balancing potassium levels can disrupt mineral balance and potentially cause more harm than good, not what we’re looking for!. If you would like support with preconception nutrition, you may connect with me here. Working with a nutritionist can ensure you build up your nutrient stores safely and effectively, and tailor your diet to your specific needs and imbalances.
2. Balance Blood Sugar
Stabilizing blood sugar levels before pregnancy improves egg quality, supports hormone balance, and reduces the risk of complications like gestational diabetes, which can affect both your health and your baby’s. High blood sugar levels during conception and early pregnancy increases the risk of insulin resistance and metabolic issues in your child later in life, so it has a long term impact on metabolic processes.
Beginner Tips: If you ever feel hangry, want a siesta after a meal, or you feel better after eating (more energy or more clear minded), than you are familiar with dysregulated blood sugar. To start your day with better blood sugar levels eat a savory, high protein breakfast, skip the sweetened beverage, and make sure not to have coffee on an empty stomach.
3. Support Egg Quality
As you learned earlier, egg quality is important for a healthy pregnancy and improves everything from increasing the chances of getting pregnant and staying pregnant, to improving your baby’s long term health.
Beginner Tips: Emphasize antioxidant rich foods and high quality proteins to provide key nutrients that support egg quality. If there are any body imbalances like inflammation, a slow metabolism, nutrient deficiencies or blood sugar swings, addressing these will greatly improve egg quality as well.
4. Support Your Nervous System
Stress levels greatly impact hormone balance, thyroid function and egg qualit, all of which we want to be well supported going into preganancy. Supporting your nervous system is a powerful way to prepare your body for pregnancy. Ongoing stress can disrupt hormone balance, impair thyroid function, and negatively affect egg quality—all of which we want well supported for fertility and a healthy pregnancy. By prioritizing nutrition, mindfulness practices and restorative sleep, you can create a calmer internal environment that supports your body’s readiness for conception. Keep in mind that stress comes in many forms, from mental and emotional stress to physical stressors like under eating, nutrient deficiencies, blood sugar swings and gut issues.
Beginner Tips: Begin by focusing on keeping your blood sugar balanced and making sure you’re eating enough. These are impactful areas to focus on because your body will be chronically stressed if they aren’t addressed, no matter how much you meditate — although we do love meditation too.
5. Support Gut Health
Your gut plays a central role in nutrient absorption, immune function, and even hormone regulation—all critical factors for conception and pregnancy. A healthy gut microbiome also helps establish the foundation for your baby’s microbiome during birth, which impacts their immune system and long-term health.
Beginner Tips: Reduce processed foods and eat a variety of fiber-rich foods and fermented foods to support healthy gut bacteria. If you find this results in gas or bloating for you, or you already struggle with gas or bloating, it’s a sign that there’s greater gut dysbiosis that needs support.
6. Support Detoxification
Your body’s ability to process and eliminate toxins is critical during preconception. Environmental toxins such as heavy metals, pesticides, and endocrine disruptors can affect egg quality, disrupt hormones, and increase oxidative stress. Research has also found that almost 80% of the chemicals detected in maternal blood are present in the umbilical cord blood, indicating significant transfer of pollutants from mother to fetus.
Beginner Tips: Begin reducing toxin exposure by switching to non-toxic cleaning products and personal care items, choosing organic food when possible, and avoiding plastic food storage. Make sure you’re having a daily bowel movement, as constipation causes toxin reabsorption and build up.
7. Balance Your Hormones
Balanced hormones are the cornerstone of fertility. Irregular periods, PMS, or difficulty conceiving can all point to hormonal imbalances that need to be addressed during preconception. Hormones like estrogen, progesterone, and thyroid hormones regulate ovulation, implantation, and early pregnancy so it’s important that these are at healthy levels.
Beginner Tips: Confirming that you’re ovulating and determining roughly how much progesterone you’re making is one of the most important steps in balancing hormones, especially when preparing for pregnancy. Thankfully, you can do this at home! You can learn more about confirming ovulation and progesterone levels here: How to Increase Progesterone Levels Naturally.
Ready to Begin Your Preconception Journey?
The choices you make before pregnancy have an incredible influence on your baby’s development, your pregnancy experience, and even your postpartum recovery. It’s a powerful opportunity to optimize your health, but it can feel overwhelming to know where to start. That’s where I come in. As a holistic nutritionist specializing in preconception and pregnancy, I’m here to help you support egg quality, build nutrient reserves, support hormone balance, and address your body’s unique needs so you can feel confident and prepared for this next chapter. Let’s connect and talk about how we can work together to lay the foundation for a healthy pregnancy.
