Be fit to have healthy kids

If you are planning to have a baby soon, there is a lot to do as, surely, you want to have the healthiest baby possible. Although no one can promise you an easy pregnancy and a healthy baby, this article covers some important things you can do to improve your chances.

Conception occurs about two weeks before your period is due. This means you may not even know you’re pregnant until more than three weeks later. Yet your baby is most sensitive to harm two to eight weeks after conception.

This is when your baby’s features and organs, such as the heart and kidneys, begin to form. Anything you eat, drink, smoke or are exposed to can affect your baby. That’s why it’s best to start acting as if you’re pregnant before you are.

Researchers have concluded that wo­men who are fit are more likely to have fit children. In fact, women who are overweight during pregnancy tend to have overweight babies and overweight children. At the age of 11, for example, 46 per cent of children of obese mothers were overweight, compared with 12 per cent of children of non-obese mothers.

Diabetes in pregnancy is another risk factor. This same study found that children whose mothers developed diabetes while...