Skip to content

Surgery Door
Search our Site
Tip: Try using OR to broaden your
search e.g: Cartilage or joints
.

Getting and staying healthy

See ' Your health in pregnancy' about diet, smoking, alcohol and exercise. The advice is even more effective if you start well before the next baby is on the way. You will need to prepare for pregnancy by taking extra folic acid from the time you start trying to conceive right up until you’re 12 weeks’ pregnant. Choose foods that contain this important vitamin such as green, leafy vegetables and breakfast cereals and breads with added folic acid. To make sure you get enough, you should also take a 400 microgram (0.4 milligram) tablet every day. You can get these tablets from a supermarket or pharmacist. 

 

If you already have a baby with spina bifida, if you have coeliac disease or take anti-epileptic drugs, ask your GP for more advice, since you will need to take a bigger dose of folic acid.

 

Things to think about

Here are some things that are worth doing before having your next baby.

 

Rubella (German measles)

Rubella can badly damage a baby during pregnancy. If you were not already immune you should have been offered immunisation immediately after your baby was born. Before trying for another baby, think about having a blood test to check that you are immune to rubella. The blood test will measure if you have enough protection (antibodies) against rubella. Women with low or uncertain levels of antibodies can be immunised again.

 

Long-term medication

If either of you has a chronic illness or disability and has to take long-term medication, talk to your doctor in advance of pregnancy about any possible effects on fertility or pregnancy. It may be possible to cut down the dosage.

Diabetes and epilepsy

If you have diabetes or epilepsy, talk to your doctor in advance.

 

Medicines and drugs

These may endanger your baby’s health. Don’t take any over-the-counter drugs at the time you hope to conceive without making sure they are safe to take in pregnancy. Addictive drugs will affect your ability to conceive and, if you do conceive, are likely to damage your baby’s health.

 

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs)

STIs can affect your ability to conceive as well as affecting you. If there is any chance that either of you has been in contact with an STI, it’s important to get it diagnosed and treated before starting another pregnancy. STIs, including HIV and hepatitis B, can be passed on through:

  • sexual intercourse with an infected person, especially without using a condom, and some STIs can be transmitted during sex without penetration;
  • HIV and hepatitis B can also be passed on by sharing equipment for injecting drugs.

If you’re HIV positive, you could pass the virus on to your baby either in the womb, at birth, or by breastfeeding. About 15% of children born to mothers with the virus are likely to be infected (see section in Antenatal care and antenatal classes).

 

Hazards at work

If you or your partner think there may be a risk involved in your work, talk to a union representative, your employer or personnel department. You have a legal right to know whether there is a definite risk. If there is a risk, ask if you can be moved to a safer job or, if this is not possible, find out whether wearing protective clothing, avoiding breathing in fumes and dust, and avoiding skin contact provide sufficient protection.

 

Vaginal birth after caesarean section

The majority of women who have had a Caesarean section are able to aim for a vaginal delivery for their next baby. This depends, however, on the reason for the first Caesarean section. Women who are thought to have a small pelvis, for example, may be advised to have a ‘planned’ (elective) Caesarean section next time. Your GP, or midwife, will be able to advise you. Most women who are advised to try for a vaginal delivery in subsequent pregnancies do have normal deliveries.

 

 Information provided by Health Promotion England.