What to Expect Before You're Expecting: The Complete Guide to Getting Pregnant

by Heidi Murkoff

Overview

What to expect. . . the first step. Answers to all your baby-making questions.

• Are there ways to improve our chances of having a girl (or boy)?
• Does stress affect fertility?
• Should we be having sex every day? Every other day? Three times a day?
• I’m 37. Does that mean I’ll have a harder time getting pregnant?
• How long should we keep trying to conceive before we get some help?
• What fertility treatments are available—and how will we be able to pay for them?

Expecting to expect? Plan ahead. Here’s everything you need to know to help prepare for the healthiest possible pregnancy and the healthiest possible baby. Filled with practical tips, empathetic advice, and savvy strategies, all designed to help you get that baby of your dreams on board faster. How to get your body into the best baby-making shape. Which foods feed fertility. Which lifestyle habits to quit and which to cultivate. All about baby-making sex, from timing to positions to logistics—and how to keep it sexy. Figuring out your fertility (and his). When to seek fertility help, and the latest on tests, treatments, and reproductive technology. Expecting to become a dad? This book has you covered, too. Plus, all about the family-building options for single women and same-sex couples.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781523501502
Publisher:	Workman Publishing Company
Publication date:	10/03/2017
Series:	What to Expect
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	65,046
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Heidi Murkoff is the author of the world’s bestselling What to Expect® series of pregnancy and parenting books, with over 43 million copies in print in 44 languages.  She is also the creator of WhatToExpect.com and the WhatToExpect app, a community of 20 million parents, and the face of the app’s week-by-week pregnancy and first year videos. Using the power of the WTE platforms, Heidi works closely with the CDC, HHS, AAP and other public health organizations to share vital messages about maternal and infant health and safety. Her passionate commitment to the wellbeing of all moms and babies led her to found the What to Expect Project (WTEP), a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring that every mom receives the empowering information and nurturing support she needs to deliver a healthy pregnancy, safe delivery, and healthy future to herself and the baby she loves. Along with the WTEP, Heidi advocates actively in Congress for legislation and policies supporting expecting and new moms and families, including military families. Since 2013, she has hosted close to 300 Special Delivery baby showers for tens of thousands of military moms and dads serving far from family and friends at bases around the world. In 2022, she and her husband Erik received the Elizabeth and Zachary Fisher Distinguished Civilian Humanitarian Award for their support of military families.

Visit Heidi on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @HeidiMurkoff and @WhattoExpect.
 
 

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments iv

Foreword Charles J. Lockwood vi

Introduction: What Can You Expect Before You're Expecting viii

Part 1 Getting Ready to Make a Baby

Chapter 1 Prepping Before You're Expecting 2

Chapter 2 Weighing In Before You're Expecting 36

Chapter 3 Eating Well Before You're Expecting 49

Part 2 Making a Baby

Chapter 4 The Biology of Baby Making 72

Chapter 5 Predicting Ovulation 84

Chapter 6 Figuring Out Your Fertility 94

Chapter 7 Getting Busy Making a Baby 100

Chapter 8 Are You Pregnant? 124

Part 3 Bumps on the Road to Baby

Chapter 9 Challenges to Fertility 138

Chapter 10 When You Need a Little Help 151

Chapter 11 Beginning Again After a Loss 178

Part 4 Keeping Track

Chapter 12 Your Fertility Planner 194

TTC Glossary 254

Your TTC Journal 256

Index 263

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“The book to read before the journey of pregnancy begins—the one resource that will fully prepare you and your partner for one of life’s most miraculous experiences, at the time when preparation will benefit your future baby most: before you’re expecting.” —Charles J. Lockwood, M.D.

Editorial Reviews

Pregnancy guru Murkoff (What to Expect When You're Expecting) explains that a healthy pregnancy actually begins long before sperm and egg meet. In fact, she suggests that couples add at least three months to the requisite nine in order to prepare both their bodies for the best outcome. Backed by research and expert advice, Murkoff and Mazel present a preconception program that includes tips on what to eat (and not eat), how to maintain a healthy weight and advice about preconception medical care, such as having a physical and dental checkup. The text points out that dads are vitally important to pre-pregnancy health, with warnings that heavy drinking and smoking can damage or reduce sperm, as can certain sports such as spinning, cycling or heavy workouts. (Shaded boxes throughout the text address the ways in which men can contribute to baby-to-be's successful arrival.) The text also covers fertility issues, clearly explaining "the biology of baby making" and outlining the options available to couples who are facing conception problems. Readers who like to think ahead will also benefit from a detailed fertility planner, which includes a fertility chart to track ovulation and space to record various pre-baby appointments and information. Couples who are trying to conceive will find plenty of useful ideas to consider and implement in the months preceding their baby's debut. (May)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly