There are many people that are involved in the early aspects of a pregnancy and if you are thinking about the potential challenges and changes that will come with your pregnancy before you have even conceived, one person that you should especially have a chat with is your family doctor. The family doctor is responsible for the general health of the family, but is often not consulted about pregnancy related issues until they actually come along. If you have already made the mental step that comes with a decision to plan for pregnancy before conception actually takes place, it should be fairly obvious why you would want to talk to your family doctor.
All family doctors have at least a passing familiarity with the issues surrounding pregnancy as it is one of the most important topics in general health today. For this reason, your doctor can give you advice on any number of questions that you might have about pregnancy.
For example, consider what comes with pregnancy in terms of general health. Ignoring for the moment extraordinary factors, on a day-to-day basis the general health of an individual can be expressed as a function of their diet and the amount of exercise that they get. Even if you are reasonably good in these areas, a pregnancy can turn everything on its head and result in changes in both diet and fitness regimes. Questions about these changes can easily be answered by a family doctor and even if they cannot, your family doctor is the first step for a referral to a specialist that can help you further. That is just one way in which talking to your doctor about pregnancy before you conceive can be a very helpful experience.
Another worthwhile example has to do with the idea of habits. We all have certain bad habits that we are afraid to admit to, whether they are drinking, smoking, biting our nails or anything else along those lines. The third won’t affect your pregnancy, but the first two might. Your family doctor can tell you the difference between an okay bad habit vis-à-vis pregnancy and one that you need to clean up before conception.
