So you think you’re ready to have a baby. At least, you and your partner agree that you’re ready to begin trying to conceive. You’ve answered every question on the list Important Things To Consider Before TTC, and passed with flying colors! Now what? You head over to the local book store to pick up a few of the popular titles on the subject that your friends and colleagues suggested to give you some helpful tips on boosting your chances. Suddenly, you are standing in front of the largest, most intimidating wall of hundreds of pre-conception books, all claiming to be exactly what you need to achieve pregnancy quickly. Whether you’ve been TTC for a while or your journey has just begun, we have compiled a list of beneficial books, some of which have provided us, personally, with the knowledge to achieve our very own TTC goals.
Taking Charge of Your Fertility
you are trying to get pregnant; avoid pregnancy; or simply, better understand your reproductive system, Taking Charge of Your Fertility will provide you with proven, scientific tools to achieve your goals. With simple, clean and easy-to-follow sections, it provides vivid descriptions about the female body and reproductive system, and instils you with valuable information on how to read your body each month and look for the signs of your highest and lowest fertile days. With a greater understanding of how your reproductive system actually works, and the knowledge that not every woman is on a perfect 28-day cycle, you will learn how to follow your body’s cues and recognize signs of fertility each month.
Fertility Wisdom
troducing a somewhat less mainstream approach, Dr. Angela C. Wu offers a 6-step approach to achieving fertility. Based off of her practices in her facility, Wu Healing Center, in San Francisco, she provides readers with a “self-care regimen that helps create the internal harmony and balance vital to conception.” In her book, Fertility Wisdom: How Traditional Chinese Medicine Can Help Overcome Infertility, Wu combines ancient Chinese healing traditions with modern Western medical treatments to help couples achieve fertility that many have given up hope on.
Get Ready to Get Pregnant
While many women begin eating healthier, exercising and taking vitamins as soon as they become pregnant to ensure a healthy pregnancy and baby, Dr. and author Michael C. Lu suggests that this process should begin well before conception. In his book, Get Ready to Get Pregnant: Your Complete Prepregnancy Guide to Making a Smart and Healthy Baby, he outlines a plan to prepare your mind and body for pregnancy before you begin TTC. This plan includes everything from detoxifying your environment and body to tuning into your immune system. Backed by strong research, Lu believes that taking these necessary preconception steps can help prevent pregnancy conditions like gestational diabetes and preeclampsia, and even reduce the likelihood of post-birth conditions for your child, such as asthma and autism.
Which books have you found most beneficial in your TTC journeys? Let us know in the comments below.
Photo credit: The Art of Making a Baby
