On Pre-Pregnancy Books

When we started thinking about TTC, the first thing I wanted to do was read everything I could about the subject.  My reading ranged from books like Taking Charge of Your Fertility (I don’t categorize this as a pre-pregnancy book so much as one on reproductive understanding, whatever your aim is), to more specific reads about how to prepare your body, relationship, and wallet for a future baby.

Sidenote: the following are my thoughts on pre-pregnancy books about general pregnancy preparation, not books on infertility or even specifically “how to get pregnant” books.  I have no experience with those and therefore no opinion.

I purchased and read What to Expect Before You’re Expecting, though there are many similar books on the market such as: The Pre-Pregnancy Planner, Get Ready to Get Pregnant, Before You Conceive, and Before Your Pregnancy.

Source

In short, here is my advice: these books are pretty uninformative and you are far better off preparing yourself for pregnancy by simply buying books written for women who are already pregnant.

I understand the temptation to buy pre-pregnancy books.  You might feel silly buying a book on pregnancy when you’re not actually pregnant yet, and these books seem like they are written just for you!  Well, consider this blog post written just for you.  This is a summary of what most of these books will tell you (for free!):

• See your doctor for a full-body checkup.
• Prepare your body for a healthy pregnancy by eating a healthy diet and taking prenatal vitamins for at least three months before conception.
• Reduce or eliminate your alcohol and drug consumption.
• Prepare your partner’s body to produce healthy sperm by eating a healthy diet and reducing or eliminating alcohol and drug consumption.
• Stop smoking.
• Limit your exposure to common environmental toxins.
• Make efforts to get to an ideal weight for your body.
• Consider an STD test, a flu shot, and getting current on your vaccinations.
• Stop using any form of hormonal birth control and use a barrier method until you are ready to officially “start.”
• Familiarize yourself with your cycle, keeping notes or charts if necessary.

Basically, these books will tell you that if you wouldn’t do it while pregnant, reduce or eliminate it while trying to become pregnant.  They may provide you with a fertility chart or calendar with which to chart your cycle, but you can find those online or just use a regular calendar.

In retrospect, I would have felt far more prepared for pregnancy by reading the books I didn’t buy until I got pregnant.  It also would have been a better investment, as these are the books I have returned to over and over again during pregnancy.  My pre-pregnancy book, on the other hand, has a few notes written in the margins and will be shelved forevermore.