Helping Patients Prepare for Pregnancy in Louisville, Kentucky

Baptist Health Louisville: Helping Patients Prepare for Pregnancy

Women preparing to conceive generally plan six to 12 months ahead and are strongly advised to meet with their doctor. Learn more about what to know before getting pregnant from Baptist Health.

Helping Patients Prepare for Pregnancy in Louisville, Kentucky HealthTalks Transcript

Kristin Bianchi, MD:
Women should start thinking about a healthy pregnancy as soon as possible, as soon as they may have a plan to become pregnant, and that should be at least six months to a year in advance.

Some steps are to meet with your physician to go over any health risks you may have. It’s important to discuss family history as well as any medical conditions. Sometimes, during a visit, we can also find risk factors for difficulty getting pregnant, and we can help find earlier solutions.

Many common medical problems, like high blood pressure, diabetes, thyroid disease, need to be really well managed before pregnancy, and a lot of medications are safe to use during pregnancy, but some really need to be adjusted.

Some really important lifestyle changes are to not drink any alcohol. You should stay away from any harmful substances and definitely quit smoking. It’s also important to have a healthy weight before pregnancy, so diet and exercise are a big key to that. It’s also important to take a prenatal vitamin with folic acid even before you’re pregnant, because that folic acid is really important in the early stages of pregnancy.

Baptist Health Partners in Women’s Health is special because it’s a really warm and inviting environment. All the physicians here are very experienced, and we always try to take individual, personalized care of each patient.