Raising Healthy Children: Fertility Diet

The health of your children starts before they’re even born.  In fact, it starts before conception!  Your health is so important in making sure that your children are healthy.  That’s why, today, we’re talking about fertility diets!

If a woman’s body is deficient in nutrients before she gets pregnant, then she faces the possibility that her baby will have less than optimal health — including the possibility for disorders (like spina bifida and other neural tube dysfunctions, stemming from folate deficiency) up to, unfortunately, miscarrying that baby (a deficiency in vitamin A has been known to lead to miscarriage).

Ideally, a woman will prepare for conception starting six months before she intends to get pregnant.  At this point, she should be eating a nutrient-dense “fertility diet” and not trying to do any form of cleansing or healing herself.  (However, if she needs healing or cleansing, ideally she should do this before entering the “fertility diet” stage.)

If you’re already pregnant, or already trying, and have not or did not eat a fertility diet for six months prior to conception — have no fear.  It’s not “ideal,” but as long as you are nourishing yourself now, everything will probably turn out fine.  (I ate a SAD diet during my first pregnancy and my daughter had several allergies, which we eliminated with GAPS, but she is otherwise just fine.  Eating a nourishing diet in my later pregnancies did make a difference in a lot of ways, though.)  Life’s not perfect so as soon as you know what to do…do it!  🙂

Preparing to Conceive

In a perfect world, all babies would be planned.  Obviously, that’s not true…but let’s talk about this for a second.  Fertility is optimal for women from their late teens to their late 20s.  It begins to go down a bit from there, until they enter menopause in their late 40s to 50s and are no longer fertile.

When a woman is planning to conceive a baby, it is important that she nourish her body.  Now is not the time to cleanse, heal, or diet.  If a woman is severely overweight or has known health problems, then she should seriously consider addressing these before attempting to conceive.  Pregnancy is high-risk when a woman is not healthy, and the baby is at higher risk of developmental disorders, diabetes, genetic disorders, and so on.  It’s possible to have a healthy pregnancy and baby when a woman’s health is not optimal (especially the first baby), but it’s certainly not what we want.

In addition to eating a nutrient-dense diet (and I’ll cover what that includes in just a minute), light exercise, enough sleep, and taking cod liver oil and perhaps an herbal multi-vitamin are recommended.  The idea is that your body should be optimally healthy and not deficient in anything.  Getting some sun to get your vitamin D levels up (including sunning your stomach) and definitely skipping the sunscreen aren’t bad options, either.

Also, be careful what you put on your skin — it will absorb into your body.  Natural personal care products are great, and this is a good time to switch if you haven’t already.  Try out oil cleansing or the no ‘poo method of washing your hair — it’s cheap and healthy!

What to Eat

This is the real nitty-gritty, the reason you’re probably reading.  What do you eat?

Let’s start with what not to eat first:

• Artificial sweeteners
• Preservatives
• MSG
• Vegetable oils and margarine
• Canned/processed foods (especially if they have unfamiliar/unpronounceable ingredients)
• Propylene glycol (found in ice cream, food colors, and other things)

Pretty much — if it comes in a box or bag or can, and it’s a prepared food — don’t buy it!  There are a few exceptions if you read labels carefully, but don’t be fooled by the claims on the front.  Always read the back of the label for the full ingredients list.

What to eat:

• Pastured, raw dairy
• Whole eggs and egg yolks (pastured)
• Pastured meats (with the fat)
• Healthy fats — butter, tallow, lard, coconut oil
• Leafy greens
• Fruits and vegetables (preferably organic, when possible)
• Properly prepared whole grains
• Fermented foods
• Water or pregnancy tea (or both)

Ideally, all — or at least the majority — of what you eat should be nourishing.  This is especially crucial during pre-conception and trying to conceive when you are building up your nutrient stores and don’t have to deal with any morning sickness.  It is harder to eat well during pregnancy sometimes for that reason!  For ideas on how to make this simple and several yummy recipes, check out my book Healthy Pregnancy Super Foods.

Some women have noted that when they were struggling with infertility, eating a more nutrient-dense diet aimed at increasing fertility (as described above) helped them to regulate their cycles and become pregnant naturally.  This is an important consideration for many women these days, and the role of nutrition in fertility shouldn’t be overlooked.

Fertility Flower Can Help

Fertility Flower, a great service to help women track their cycles and conceive, has an excellent list (that you can use as an actual checklist!).

This is a great service is because it can be hard to sit and say, “Hmm, did I eat what I was supposed to today?”  Fertility Flower allows you to check off what you’ve eaten so that you can easily keep track.  I know that in many of my “healthy women and babies” groups, people are always saying “What was that diet again?  I can’t remember!”  This checklist is perfect because it’s readily accessible, and it’s there when you’re checking on your other fertility things.  It also gives the ideal number of servings per day.

Speaking of “other fertility things….”  In addition to their diet checklist, they also have checklists for various symptoms (the most extensive lists I’ve ever seen on a fertility site), a method for tracking your cycle and predicting ovulation (once it knows your “normal” of course), and lots of extra help.  If you’re trying to conceive and think you may be missing the “window of opportunity,” or maybe you’re just someone who really wants to take it all seriously, check out Fertility Flower. 🙂  I know I loved charting and watching patterns and hoping when I was trying for my first!

Pregnancy Diet

Once pregnant, it’s important to continue eating the same nutrient-dense foods.  I have posted before on pregnancy diet. Eat what you can!  It’s hard sometimes.

A Note on Child Spacing

Traditional cultures spaced children 3 – 5 years apart.  This is because a woman’s nutrient stores tend to be depleted by pregnancy and breastfeeding.  Consuming a nourishing diet and weaning one baby at least six months before you get pregnant with the next is recommended so that you can rebuild your nutrient stores with the same type of nourishing diet described above.

Of course, people have a variety of reasons for spacing their children the way they do, and many and willing to tandem nurse.  It is possible to be healthy even if your children are spaced a bit more closely or if you are still breastfeeding.  This depends on your body.

If you have any reason to believe that your health is not ideal, hold off on having another baby for awhile.  It will be better for you and for him/her.  Magnesium deficiency is common, and transdermal supplementation may be necessary to build up your stores again.  When in doubt, wait and nourish yourself first.  Pregnancy takes a lot out of you!

**This post is sponsored by Fertility Flower.  But I do think it’s awesome service and very real-food friendly for those looking for a way to organize their natural family planning or conception efforts.**

Do you eat, or did you eat a fertility diet in preparation for your pregnancy(ies)?  Do you feel that it helped?

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