We spend the majority of our lives actively avoiding pregnancy, so when the time finally arrives that you actually want to make a baby, it’s important to plan ahead.

If you’re someone who finds herself saying “I’ll get healthy when I’m pregnant”, this episode is for you because you really do need to start making healthy lifestyle changes before you get pregnant – 3 months to be exact.

Why 3 months? It takes 90 days for an egg to mature inside the follicles in the ovary before it is released at ovulation. For the boys, it takes 3 months for sperm cells to fully mature. By making lifestyle changes in the 3 months before actively trying to conceive, you’re making sure that your man has a stock of healthy, high quality mature sperm and that you’re creating the healthiest possible environment that encourages a fertilised egg to implant and develop into your baby.

As soon as we ovulate, the body starts to prepare for a potential pregnancy. Month after month, our menstrual cycle creates the perfect conditions for an egg to be fertilised so that when a long-awaited pregnancy finally occurs, you can get to work straight away growing your baby – long before you even know you’re pregnant.

In this episode, you’ll learn when the best possible time is to take a pregnancy test in order to get an accurate result. I’ll share the earliest signs of pregnancy to look out for as well as how to survive the two-week wait between ovulation and your next expected period.

Pre-conception care is not just for women, your baby begins with 50% egg and 50% sperm, so sperm health is equally as important as egg health for fertilisation and development of a healthy baby. It takes three months for sperm to develop and mature before they are capable of fertilising an egg, so preparation should start at least three months before trying to conceive. This can ensure sperm is high quality and viable and gives the best chance of fertilising the egg.

Once pregnancy is confirmed, the hard part’s over for the man and the woman has to keep up her good habits for another 9 months. So if your man is struggling to stick to healthy habits, remind him it’s only for 3 months! But of course, if he sticks with them, there are long-term health benefits too.

In this episode, I’m giving you my 10 top tips for males to prepare for pregnancy.

I’m pregnant. Should I be monitoring my heart rate when I exercise?

This is a super common question and something that causes a lot of stress and confusion for pregnant women.

The recommendation for pregnant women to keep their heart rates below 140 bpm was big in the 90s. But just like big perms, shoulder pads and flowery maternity dresses, things go out of date. And these guidelines have certainly gone out of date.

In this episode, I’m diving deep into why monitoring your heart rate during exercise is oh-so 1990s and I’ll break down what you should be doing instead.

Wanna know my all-time top 5 fertility superfoods? In this episode, I’m giving you my favourite foods for boosting your fertility naturally and making sure you’re getting all the essential nutrients when preparing for pregnancy.