What is it?
This is the preparation prior to conception for women & men wanting to improve their health, those experiencing any type of fertility challenge and/or going through fertility treatment.
Dr. Tamara Darragh takes a deep dive into understanding your health history & the obstacles to optimal fertility you may be experiencing. Therapy may include lifestyle changes, nutritional therapy, mind-body awareness, reduction of toxin exposure, physical medicine, acupuncture, herbal medicine, targeted supplementation, and co-management with other providers as needed.
The goal is to boost your health & in turn egg & sperm quality, create a nourishing uterine environment for your little one to grow, reduce risk of miscarriage or pregnancy complications & improve fertility treatment outcomes.
Why do you need it?
The benefits of preconception care are so far-reaching! Your overall reproductive health is dependent upon the quality & health of your egg & sperm cells. These can both be improved through natural means. By improving your health before conception, you boost fertility, improve your chance of a healthy pregnancy, and optimize the lifelong wellness of your baby.
This preparatory time provides an immense opportunity to change your baby’s genetic blueprint by enhancing egg & sperm fitness. It enriches the necessary building blocks & nutrient stores that your baby will need to grow & thrive and begins to prepare your mental & physical resilience needed during & after pregnancy.
When should you start?
Amazingly, women are born with all the eggs they will ever have. Your eggs are suspended in an immature state until about a year before ovulation and start their final maturation 4 months before they are released. Men are creating new sperm all the time. The sperm cell regeneration process takes about 4 months. So, there is a critical 4-month window before conception when your health (mind & body), nutrition, lifestyle & environmental exposures are vital to the proper development of your egg and sperm, your chance of conception (naturally or in conjunction with ART), and the health of your baby.
Keeping this in mind, to optimize your fertility, it may be necessary to allow a minimum of 4 months from the time you start making changes to your nutrition, lifestyle, toxin exposure, etc. before expecting results. Every case is different. A realistic time frame is 4-12 months, but it’s never too late! True healing takes time.
What are the benefits?
Science has shown us that preparation makes an enormous difference in pregnancy outcomes, the health of our children, and the health of many generations to come. So whether you’re just beginning to contemplate the expansion of your family or you’re deep into fertility treatment there are so many benefits to preconception care.
Benefits for Baby
- Increased chance of a healthy baby
- Reduced risk of birth defects
Benefits for Pregnancy
- Increased chance of a natural, unmedicated conception, pregnancy & birth
- Decreased likelihood of pregnancy complications (i.e., miscarriage, premature birth, stillbirth, gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia)
Benefits in conjunction with Advanced Reproductive Technology
- Improve success rate of IVF
- Reduce risk of increased miscarriage and health risks to mom & baby that may occur with IVF
Benefits for Parents
- Improved personal health
- Enhanced understanding of fertility
- Increased chance of conception, pregnancy, healthy birth & baby
- A commonly successful alternative to assisted reproductive technology (ART) for many fertility concerns
Benefits for Older Parents
- Improved fertility by addressing hormonal imbalance, digestive concerns, blood sugar imbalances, autoimmune conditions, allergies, stress, etc.
- Improved egg & sperm quality
- Natural support to improve estrogen & progesterone levels, decrease FSH, increase ovarian response, normalize ovulation & enhance uterine implantation
- Protection against age-related sub fertility and miscarriage
- Improved reproductive health & lower risk of chromosomal abnormalities from toxin exposure and nutrient deficiency
