A light hearted, but still jam packed episode about going back to the basics of getting pregnant. 

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This episode is for anyone who is thinking they might need a few hints on what they can be doing to increase their chances of getting pregnant. It might be all you need to help you get on your way to BABY.

In this ep we talk about:

• What we mean when we say ‘better nick’
• What a regular cycle means
• What your teeth have to do with it
• What our potential birth choices are
• Even when to start working on names.

Brigid [00:00:36] Well, welcome, everyone, this is episode 26 and we’re going to be talking about just some hints on how to get pregnant, which is really important stuff, stuff you have to do to get in the space.

Brigid [00:00:51] So we’re not really going to cover, you know, ovulation and things like that. That’s going to be that was Episode 2. How to track your ovulation like a ninja. So go back and have a little listen to that. But this is this is gonna be fun. And you’ll definitely have some tips by the end of it. 

And Paddy, we wanted to tell everyone, we’ve had another family here who you’ve delivered. Now their fourth, fourth baby. What did they have? 

Patrick [00:01:21] And the fourth, fourth boy. Yes. So they’re the same as us four boys. 

Brigid [00:01:25] And she didn’t find out the gender of the baby either, did she. 

Patrick [00:01:30] No. I shared the story of when we took the kids to Disneyland and one of our kids said, that’s great us all being boys. We don’t have to go on any stupid girl rides. 

Patrick [00:01:45] Right. 

Brigid [00:01:47] So one big benefit. 

Patrick [00:01:49] There’s lots of benefits to single sex family. Yes. 

Brigid [00:01:54] You can hand down the clothes. What are the others? I’m struggling.

Patrick [00:02:00] So anyway, it was it was it was a happy day. 

Brigid [00:02:04] And did they have a name for that baby? 

Patrick [00:02:06] Mick. Cute, isn’t it? And so I’ve got a brother Mick. And she’s one of the, I think maybe the first or equal first number of some number of babies from one woman, one woman that I’ve been involved in.  

Brigid [00:02:28] We don’t have many four child families anymore? Do we?

Patrick [00:02:32] Do we know? No. And I dunno if that records got to be broken any time soon because there certainly are many fives. Yeah. Yeah. 

Brigid [00:02:37] No. All right. Well, so we’re going to go on to how to get pregnant. So this is all sort of stemmed from at the moment this week. We’ve sort of been covering off on a couple of post on Instagram, which people if you’re not there, please go over right now, drop your listening and get on to your phone and just go to our Instagram, which is @grow_my_baby and come and be one of our friends. 

And we’ve been covering getting pregnant and we’ve been talking a lot about what a regular period is. And somebody asked the question I think might be worthwhile sort of answering them here. Oh. We’ll answer it also on Instagram. But her question. Mel asks, Does regular mean bang on the same number of days each cycle or roundabout, give or take a few days for each cycle? 

Patrick [00:03:26] Well, bang on is nice that that that kind of proves it. If you have a 28 days I want to have for 28 days without fail, that’s an ovulatory cycle. You’re ovulating. And it really needs very little confirmation of that. But if there’s significant irregularity, that’s means you are probably not ovulating or not ovulating when you think you are, or not ovulating every month. Right. And then there are women who have some mild cycle irregularity, perhaps a day or two. Yes. And they’re probably ovulating as well. Yes. But if having trouble checking for that ovulation is easy, it’s about a test done on day 21 of the cycle, looking for progesterone levels. Yes. 

Patrick [00:04:06] And if the ovaries already made an egg, the progesterone level will be high. 

Brigid [00:04:11] And who does that blood test? 

Patrick [00:04:13] A GP can organise that without much trouble. And certainly one of the ones we look at, if someone’s made it all the way to an obstetrician, gynaecologist or infertility specialist. 

Patrick [00:04:25] But it’s a nice place to start, especially if someone is well, my cycle is somewhere between 26 and 29 days. Am I ovulating? That’s the way to find out. 

Brigid [00:04:35] Yeah. Right. Okay. And you know, how would they do that straight away? Like. Gosh, I loved it. One person sort of said, I can’t I don’t have it in front of me. Firstly, if you’ve got a regular period, you’ve been having well-timed sex, your partner has no history or problems with semen quality, then it’s 12 months. Yeah, this is kind of like an average time to get pregnant. If you’re under 35. 

Patrick [00:05:02] Yeah, well, that’s how long you should try for before seeking help with everything else where your ducks in a row. 

Brigid [00:05:07] So this poster said initially she questioned whether she should have gone as soon as she did, but she’s so glad she did. She went straight off to the GP before they started trying because she realized that irregular periods is one catalyst to go and see your GP to go earlier. You have to go earlier, don’t wait the twelve months. And then she did. 

Patrick [00:05:25] Did she learn that from us? 

Brigid [00:05:26] No, damn it. 

Brigid [00:05:32] But she confirmed that what you know, that was her story. And that was good. 

Patrick [00:05:35] Yeah. So it’s it’s a kind of a thing of mine that there’s no point trying for 12 months if you don’t have the ingredients. Yeah. And so what? Well, I hope some people get out of how podcast is. If you if you’ve got shocking pelvic pain, irregular periods and a partner who’s had mumps and a varicosity in their scrotum. And you’re both in your late 30s. We do not wait a year people. Just get along. We get along, get stuff tested, make sure we’ve got the right ingredients to start with. 

Brigid [00:06:05] Because to be honest, most people, well not most, but there’s so many of us, us included, who have found their partner in their thirties. Yes. And, you know, then they sort of wait until the right time in that relationship to have a child. And that could be that they’re thirty four, thirty five, thirty six, thirty seven or us for thirty nine, forty. 

Patrick [00:06:26] So there’s nothing wrong with it. But. But we want to be just a little bit more scientific about it. Yeah. 

Brigid [00:06:33] Yeah. We were perhaps too scientific. We thought we would have struggled to get pregnant. We are good. All right. So Paddy, we wanted to start off. And it’s not something medical. This, you know, getting pregnant. We say the first thing that you need to do is just take stock. Where are you in your life? Obviously, the decision to become a parent is a big deal. 

Patrick [00:06:58] Yeah. So I think one of the things we do is we all make great plans for the birth of the baby. But ultimately, looking back, that’s kind of one day in a lifetime of parenting. And, you know, it doesn’t stop, they get big. And and, you know, all my brothers and sisters are well in their 40s. And my mom would say she’s still parenting to some degree, you know? 

Brigid [00:07:20] Wow. Is she still parenting? And she needs to. 

Patrick [00:07:23] Says You! But you know, it’s a lifetime of parenting, the birth is one that’s it’s a big deal, but it’s one day. And I think, you know, during that time of trying, it’s the perfect time to think, well, well, um, what do we what we want to achieve here? Which of my heartfelt personal values do I most wish to foster in my child? Yeah. What sort of a parent am I gonna be? Yeah. 

Brigid [00:07:50] Yeah. And also sort of what support have I got? How do I think I’ll cope? How do I think I’ll be able to tap into, you know, family help? Friends help? Because we say it again and again. It really does take a village. And we see it in our clinic because we’re based in regional Victoria. And we have a lot of people that perhaps move here and they don’t have that support base. And it’s a very hard road for some of them. Yeah. 

Patrick [00:08:21] So, you know, in this, if we’re fortunate enough to have a pregnancy where, it’s planned and where we are getting all of those ducks in a row, on some folate and off the contraception chart and the cycle, then there’s time to think about some of those issues, like why we’re doing this and how we’re gonna go about. Yeah. Yeah. 

Brigid [00:08:44] And this is by any means telling you not to do it. Do it. We love babies. 

Patrick [00:08:52] It’s the best thing you’ll ever do, but, um, you know, that’s just something to think about. 

Brigid [00:08:58] Exactly. So we also think that it’s just vital to get educated. Yeah, that’s what we’re doing here. Yep. Yep. So, you know, it’s this big tick to you. You’re already here. You’re already learning about things. Oh, my gosh. There’s so many medical terms isn’t. It’s just like you’ve started a whole new course that you don’t have a platform to learn from or do you? 

[00:09:18] Yeah. 

Brigid [00:09:20] That’s what we’re building to grow my baby program. But, you know, you you will get bombarded with terms and you think, oh, my God, this is just like a whole new world. So, yeah. 

Patrick [00:09:29] And then, you know that sometimes there are things that people it’s not until their second or third baby and sat I didn’t realise that was an option. Yes. Yeah. And that, you know, was always an option. It’s just you didn’t know about it. So there are some things, you know,  delayed called clamping. Yeah. There’s maternal assisted caesareans. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So something. Yeah. It’s like cord clamping has gone from very quickly from a sort of a strange thing that people wanted, a bit fringe. Right up to absolutely standard. In just a few years. Yeah. Because it turns out good for you. Yeah. And it turns out that it’s reasonable to do at most vaginal births and even at most caesarean sections. Yes. Yeah. And you know, if I had people say to me I couldn’t have that because it was a section. Why not? Why not. That’s it. That’s fine. Yeah. If you’re not bleeding cause you’re fine. 

Brigid [00:10:26] Yeah, exactly. Skin to skin contact, you know. These are things that sometimes happens in a hospital like even between the four boys. I think the only real skin to skin contact that I had was with our third baby. And they just you know, it was I didn’t even have to ask for it was just sort of done. And then the Rex. So he was our fourth. He was all wrapped up like a burrito and given back to me. So we didn’t really have that immediate skin to skin contact until the next mid-wife came. I just forgot to ask. And the next mid-wife came and said, Oh, well, that’s not good and unwrapped him. 

Patrick [00:11:03] That’s that’s a good example, because some can’t always rely on hospitals and caregivers to magically give us what we want. Yeah, we want to ask for it. Yeah. And you want to ask for it unless you know what’s available. Yeah. What are the things you get a choice in. Yes. And how do we go about exercising that choice? 

Brigid [00:11:26] And that just reminds me that we’ve written this really good fillable birth plan template in our GrowMyBaby program. So you know, all of those things sort of covered and you get that, you know, you get the trigger you should even think about, well, do I want to like delayed cord clamping? Do I want skin to skin contact? Yeah, we think yes should be the answer to all those things. 

Brigid [00:11:49] So the next ones we want to talk about in terms of getting pregnant is, getting you into good Nick. So it’s really vitally important, isn’t it? 

Patrick [00:11:59] Yes. So we’re talking about exercise and it doesn’t matter what you do. Yeah. Is the bottom line you have to do something. Yeah. So even if your body weight is normal, you still wanna be doing some some exercise regularly. Yeah. And come on, if you got no kids yet, what else are you doing with your time? 

Brigid [00:12:17] Netflix. God, what did we do without kids? 

Patrick [00:12:20] So just do something. Yeah. And commit to it so that cardiovascular health and body weight. Are under control when the pregnancy starts. 

Brigid [00:12:34] It’s a habit.

Patrick [00:12:37] That you’re in the habit of exercising. You gotta keep going in the pregnancy. Yeah. You’re a little bit a few weeks off at the start when you feel really bad. And with the nausea and vomiting and then you got to keep exercising so that we can manage the manageable risks of hypertension, pre-eclampsia, diabetes by keeping body weight under control. So you want to be doing something in early pregnancy that might be the thing you’re already doing. Yeah. If it’s something that’s suitable for pregnancy, which most things are. Yeah. I’m just say to people contact sports out from once you from when you’re pregnant. Yeah. That’s about it. And then in the third trimester you move on to something pregnancy specific like like pilates or yoga or water aerobics. Yeah but it’s about a philosophy of being active. 

Brigid [00:13:26] And I think that I mean, gosh, it’s about 150 minutes of moderate exercise in a week. Or is it 60 or 90 minutes of strenuous exercise? So it’s not much. 

Patrick [00:13:37] Yes. Spread over a few goes. It’s doable. Yeah. Yeah. 

Brigid [00:13:41] Excellent. Smoking in Australia. Sorry, folks who are listening from you. Ah, well, we know that you’re listening from the US, from Brazil. We’ve had comments from people from Ireland. I don’t know your rates of smoking, but in Australia we’re about 14 percent of all of Australians still smoke, which, you know, is good. And it’s way down from what it was, you know, in the 80s. Yeah, 70s, 70s. But it’s still 14 percent. 

Brigid [00:14:12] And in our hometown, Pat, we’re still up at around 20 to 30 per cent, too many people. But it’s a good time to stop, isn’t it? 

Patrick [00:14:19] Well, tit’s a motivated time to stop. It’s a time when you can really think, well, this is not just me, it’s my baby. And so I think it’s going to help me get pregnant or help me have a healthy pregnancy if I am already pregnant. If we if we stop the smoke and then, you know, it’s been shown time again that if your partner stops as well, you motivate each other. Yeah. That that the says the. The quit rate is more sustained. 

Brigid [00:14:48] And yet for your partner, there is some studies that sort of suggest that it does impact on semen quality. Smoking. What about for the woman though. Why do we want them to stop smoking? 

Patrick [00:14:57] Ah look, there’s a number of reasons. So overall, fertility rates are lower. There’s a number of ways in which smoking decreases fertility. But then once you’re pregnant, smokers, heavy smokers, you can make a problematic placenta. Right. So just like, you know, when you if you’re a smoker, it can affect the quality of small blood vessels in our body. So that’s why it can give you a heart attack. That’s why it can give you a stroke, because this can block small blood vessels while a heavy smoker who’s pregnant. The placenta has heaps of blood vessels. Yep. So. it affects it in, you know, in broad terms in the same way here. So if in those early months the placenta hasn’t hasn’t formed properly, then in the later months of the pregnancy you start seeing significant problems with growth restriction. 

Patrick [00:15:51] Yeah. And and higher rates of major complications. 

Brigid [00:15:55] Okay. And if that little talk about smoking has motivated you, QUIT organization has some really great tools to help you. So that’s quit.org.au. And they’ve got some pregnancy specific stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Good. The next thing we want you to do is to go to the dentist. You’re trying to get pregnant. Yeah. Now is the time. 

Patrick [00:16:17] Yeah. Ideally beforehand. Yeah. And in certainly once you’re pregnant if you haven’t been yet. So I get a lot of phone calls from people saying I’ve got a toothache, I need to go to the dentist. Is it safe to go in pregnancy and um. Oh I for God sake yes go because it’s actually much more dangerous to not go. Oh yeah. So infections that get in through holes in your teeth are an important cause of premature labour. Yeah. Right. And so ideally go before you’re pregnant. Yeah. And get the teeth as good as we can. Yeah. And if you need dental work in the pregnancy, it’s safe. The dentist is ever worried about drugs they’re using or X-rays they might want to use or anything like that. They’ll call. 

Brigid [00:17:01] Yeah. And you could tell them, you know, my obstetrician or my health care providers has said to call if you’ve got any questions. Yeah. 

Patrick [00:17:09] Yeah. It’s riskier to have bad teeth than to have dental work. 

Brigid [00:17:16] Yeah. Yeah. The next thing that we wanted to talk about is weight and it can go either way kind of for your optimal weight for fertility. 

Patrick [00:17:26] Yeah. So in our community too high is much more common than too low

Patrick [00:17:30] But yeah. To ovulate. You want to be in a healthy range. Yeah. But not too low and not too high. 

Brigid [00:17:39] Yeah. We do talk about optimal BMI. 

Patrick [00:17:44] When I’m looking after pregnant women, I’ve got a set of scales there somewhere, but I don’t use them terribly often. Yeah. In the old days they used to actually they used to weigh the pregnant women to see where the baby was growing. 

Brigid [00:17:56] All right. My tummy was growing, I think. But that was the Magnum’s in the first pregnancy. Yes. So do you have anything to do with the baby?

Patrick [00:18:05] One of those holding one of those old things that was just part of going to antenatal clinic. No. Yeah. And the only problem is it didn’t work. So it actually was a pretty bad indicator of whether the baby was growing. But this is before ultrasound was invented. Yeah. So there’s still a role for weighing women in pregnancy. But I must say in tend to only weigh the women who are off the scale, bigger off the scales, small. Right. And it’s not about using it as a test for the baby growing because it doesn’t work very well for that at all. It’s just about continuing it, keeping an eye on on the development of possible complications related to weight problem. 

Brigid [00:18:39] Good. All right. So, um, you know, one thing that we struggled with actually was names. Yeah. Because it’s hard isn’t it. Yeah. 

Brigid [00:18:51] Yeah. I know this is a bit light-hearted, but like, you know, that’s part of the fun of getting pregnant is thinking about, well, one day I’m gonna have a baby and what’s that baby gonna be called. 

Brigid [00:18:59] And then you think about it before you get pregnant. Then you think about it during pregnancy and then it comes closer to the time where you actually are having the baby. And it’s panic stations and they’re out. Yeah. What am I gonna call this baby? So there’s a lot of pressure on that. 

Patrick [00:19:13] Yeah, there is. And, um, and you know, if you’re going to give a nod to someone in the family, there might be pressure to give a nod to somebody else in the family. 

Brigid [00:19:21] And so all of those things have to be thought through. 

Brigid [00:19:25] And, you know, you well, gosh, I really think the kids were watching a really great episode of Friends and Rachel and Ross were vetoing each others choices. 

Patrick [00:19:36] Yes you’ve got to have a veto. You know, I say I think I agree with your partner. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it has to be something. It might be neither of you. Neither is your first choice. Might be a compromise, a second choice. That’s agreeable to both. 

Brigid [00:19:47] That’s a massive bonus, actually. Now, having teenagers in the house, just to digress a little bit is, um, we get to watch all those shows that we used to watch in our 20s. 

Patrick [00:19:55] What we watched way back. Yeah. Friends, how I met your mother. Yeah. Yeah. 

Patrick [00:20:01] So if you’re struggling to come up with a name for a boy, Patrick is a timeless. Is a timeless classic. I mean, I totally agree. And knock yourself out. Enjoy it. Feel free to use. 

Brigid [00:20:11] Yeah. And BRIGID. Although can I say don’t call your child Brigid. Call your baby Brigid if that’s what you want to do. But the amount of times I have to spell my name. Now the next one, you know, in this getting pregnant phase is to really talk about your choices around where you want to have the baby. Yeah. So in Australia, we are absolutely spoilt for choice. So. We can have a private obstetrician in a private hospital. Private obstetrician in a public hospital. We can have a private obstetrician and you just pay your cold, hard cash. We have we have a midwife midwifery care in a public hospital. We have obstetric care in a public hospital. Private midwife, Doola, homebirth. Yeah. There’s a massive big gamut. And it’s really confusing. 

Patrick [00:21:04] So we have to work out what is right for you. Yep. And have a think about that. Maybe discuss that with people who already know you like your family doctor. Yeah. And and work out what you think. The model that is right for you and the things that I feel very strongly about as an obstetrician is that regardless of which model we go in for, there should be at least one visit with a doctor who’s an expert in obstetrics in pregnancy. Yes. Even if it’s only one to take a detailed history and to say yes, you are genuinely are low risk. Yes. And you might see a midwife from there on, right through. Yeah. And in fact, that’s a very popular model of care here now. Hospital. Yeah. No problem at that at all. But there’s very good data that’s that suggests that a single appointment with a doctor is an expert in obstetrics, during your pregnancy, it’s really good idea. And that happens at about 20 weeks in the public system, does it? So ideally, ideally, if we’re having someone come into the public system and they’re having a booking visit, that they that we’d cast an expert eye over them at that first visit. Identify the people who are super low risk and and and suitable for a very low intervention model of care. 

Patrick [00:22:30] And then from that point onwards, the people are going to have all their care through the hospital might go to a clinic run chiefly by midwives. They might go to a clinic run by junior medical people or run perhaps a great option as well is they just see the GP. Yeah. Yeah. You know what model called shared care. So you’ve got a family doctor with an interest in obstetrics. Maybe in their medical past they were a hospital doctor at some point developed some expertise in obstetrics and continue to provide antenatal care out in the community without actually doing deliveries. Yeah. And then so you see the family doc, they do the blood pressure, they check the baby’s growth, they check the diabetes, make sure that if preeclampsia, baby’s growing properly. And then there’s a few key visits with the hospital. Yeah. And that helps keep healthy people progressing normally out in the community. Yeah. And people with people with problems in the hospital. 

Brigid [00:23:31] Yeah. Yeah. And look at whether you’ve got a shared bedroom, there are also decisions that you have to make. So I just don’t know whether I remember when I was looking around. They were big in my decision making when before I met Pat. So first time listeners I met Pat when I already had two boys. And so for me to make decisions without, you know, having my handy obstetrician partner to help me along the way was quite confusing. And so I get that I get where women are when they’re making these choices. But I definitely looked at hospitals where I sort of looked at how many people in the ward. And, you know, those were important, whether in hindsight they weren’t the important parameters I should have been using to help make my decision. 

Patrick [00:24:18] Well, no, but it’s something to consider. Right. 

Patrick [00:24:20] One of the things that you get in Australia, you’ve got private health insurance and go through a private system is the single room in hospital. And when we ask patients what value do they see in their private healthcare? We as the doctors like to think it’s because they get one to one contact with us, and we’re wonderful. And that’s why they look. That’s why they like it. But one of the things that always scores pretty highly is guaranteed private room with your own bathroom. 

Brigid [00:24:48] And food. Yeah, although the food anywhere, you know, that’s my big bugbear. I wish that we would have really fabulous food in hospital because it’s such a big part of healing, healthier food, you know? Right. So if you choose to have a private obstetrician and you are in that getting pregnant phase, so you need to have your insurance for at least 12 months, you need to up your insurance firstly to cover obstetrics. Yep. But you need to have it for 12 months before the birth of the baby. So. 

Patrick [00:25:19] Yeah. So the nine months the pregnancy would count would count. Yeah. Because the claim is for the birth and delivery, the hospital bed. But because we don’t know exactly how long pregnancy is going to go for. You might get a bit early. Yeah. It’s a good idea to up your cover to cover obstetrics. Six months before you get pregnant. So that you’re very safe. Fully covered. When the time of the birth comes around. And we do see this a bit, unfortunately. People think I’ll get around to it because it’s going to take me ages to get pregnant.  And then they go off the pill and get pregnant in the first cycle. Yes. And a caught out with no cover. 

Brigid [00:26:00] And then, you know, if it is that they want a private obstetrician or whatever. And then they just make that decision whether they will go just to. Well not just to but go to the public hospital or whether they’ll pay that cold hard cash. 

Patrick [00:26:12] Yeah. Which is tough. Ideally we’d have to have insurance cover. And it helps. It’s still expensive but it helps put. That helps. Just to take money out of the decision. 

Brigid [00:26:23] Yeah. Yeah. Other things that you need to be doing before you get pregnant. You need to be on folate. Yeah. 

Patrick [00:26:31] So folate is a vitamin. And it’s a good idea to start folate supplementation when you first start trying. Yeah. So I say to people if you are on the pill, so just change one pill for another. And some people start taking a pregnancy style multivitamin. I guess if you’ve got a healthy diet and normal body weight, that might be overdoing it a little bit. Yeah. All you really need in the pre-conception phase is folate. And that’s just so there’s plenty of folate in your system, right when you conceive. Yeah. And then I say to people change over to the multivitamin once you’re actually pregnant. Yeah. Folate’s important. It helps prevent what’s called know neural tube defects, which is abnormalities of the baby’s spinal cord. Serious things. And, um, and we know that it’s basically not really possible to get the high levels of folate that we need to prevent those things from your diet. You pretty much have to be supplemented. Yep. And, um. And so whilst a perfect diet will give you just about everything else, you need the pill to get enough folate. 

Brigid [00:27:43] Yeah. All right. We will talk about charting your cycle like it. That is definitely part of getting pregnant, isn’t it? Yeah. 

Patrick [00:27:52] So You’ve got to listen 2, ovulation ninja because that’s the thing that we see people have got wrong all the time. 

Brigid [00:28:01] Yeah. 

Patrick [00:28:02] And not knowing enough about the fertile time in their cycle. Yeah. So when they come to see us after a year of trying, a lot of that year hasn’t counted. 

Patrick [00:28:13] They’ve had that they’ve had the days wrong. 

Brigid [00:28:15] And how sort of soul destroying you know they think that they’ve been doing the right thing, they have waited their 12 months. And we find out that they haven’t been having well timed sex. 

Patrick [00:28:24] Yeah. For want of a little bit of pregnancy literacy. Yeah. So, so super important. 

Brigid [00:28:29] Yeah. And the last thing. I’m sure there’s much more we could be talking about. But the last thing on our list today is to see your local doctor. 

Patrick [00:28:39] Yes. This is the other big, big thing. Passion of mine about this issue. 

Brigid [00:28:44] So if you’ve been listening to our podcast for a while now, you’ve heard Pat say this again. But say it again. 

Patrick [00:28:48] Look, the local doc is such a terrific resource. And I think I think probably globally we see the doctor as someone you go to when you’re sick. Yeah, but there’s another way of looking at it. This is a doctor is someone you go to to help you stay well.  Well, yeah. So for trying for a pregnancy. The local docs in a really good position to do some teaching on how to get where we want to go. Yeah. So not only can local docs say, well, did you know that the ovulation happens in the middle of the cycle and it should be timing intercourse around the middle, the cycle or gee, you seem to have tons of pelvic pain? Shouldn’t we look into that first? But the local docs, are also the expert on maximizing the state of control of any other health problems that you’ve got. Yeah. So if you’ve already got insulin dependent diabetes, since you’re a 5 year old, we want that to be in the best nick possible. Yeah. When you conceive. Lots of diseases, get worse in pregnancy and some of them have a negative effect on the pregnancy. So we want to be in control. 

Brigid [00:29:56] Yeah. And if you’re taking medication and. All of that needs to be reviewed. Yeah. 

Patrick [00:30:01] So. Local doc is a terrific resource for that. And I would say that anybody with an existing diagnosis from your nose to your toes should have that reviewed before getting pregnant. 

Brigid [00:30:16] Yeah, we don’t actually have it on our list, but I’m just thinking about my first time getting pregnant. What about alcohol? What if I’m trying to get pregnant? What am I doing with alcohol? 

Patrick [00:30:27] Yeah, well, we should be drinking less than we usually do. Yeah. So, um. Absolutely. Again, local doc great source of information. But yeah, winding that back significantly. Some people in the wanting a baby is are also in the don’t have any kids yet years. So alcohol intake might be high. 

Brigid [00:30:48] Yeah, alcohol intake for some in the baby years is high too. Oh, you know that’s. Yeah. We laugh but I know. You know, it’s my mummy wine o’clock thing. I don’t know how I feel about that. Like, you know, if there’s so much on Instagram where it’s like, is it wine o’clock yet? Yeah. 

Patrick [00:31:04] So I guess that’s fine. But the message for for pregnancy itself, of cause still has to be 0. 0 as soon as you find out you’re pregnant. Yeah. So if we reduce cause we’re trying. Yeah. Then it’s gonna be easier to get to nothing. 

Brigid [00:31:20] Yeah. So when we say reduce, we sort of thinking about one or two glasses a week or something like that. A week here. Yeah. 

Brigid [00:31:26] So that they might be significantly less there than people usually having. 

Patrick [00:31:30] Yeah. And also I think there’s some stats and we’re gonna do a podcast soon on male fertility, but there are stats around alcohol for males as well. Yeah. 

Patrick [00:31:40] And and sperm motility and the quality of the semen analysis. Yeah. 

Brigid [00:31:45] Yeah. So yeah this is a bit more sort of like an overview with that sort of drilling down too much into the particulars. But we hope that you’ve got something from that and come over onto Instagram and when this post comes up and just asks us you questions, see what comes up. 

Patrick [00:32:02] I would really appreciate anyone getting in touch from anywhere where you’re listening in. That’s always a pleasure to, you know, to to get back to you with some information or some point you towards some quality resources. 

Brigid [00:32:15] And, um, give us a of star review. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we like those. We read them all the time. And it’s kind of makes us enthused and motivated to keep going because we just get here today. 

Brigid [00:32:29] Yes today was a test for logistics wasn’t it Pat? 

Patrick [00:32:34] Yeah, it was. It was so. Anyway, thanks for listening, everyone. We’ll see you next time. See you now. Bye.