Top 10 Nutrition Tips For Getting Pregnant

If you’re planning on starting or growing your family, think of this time before your pregnancy as “Trimester 0” where you have the powerful opportunity to create the best possible environment to grow your future baby. 

This phase is often overlooked in favor of taking nutrition seriously after you get a positive pregnancy test, but nutrition before you get pregnant can have a huge impact on your likelihood of a healthy pregnancy and healthy baby. 

During these months (especially the 3-6 months before you get pregnant), your nutritional choices can influence everything from the health and success of your pregnancy, your risk of pregnancy complications, and even your baby's development and life-long health (pretty amazing right!?). 

By focusing on nutrition now, you're also setting a strong foundation for your fertility. 

Preconception nutrition can help balance hormones, improve egg quality, support regular ovulation, and reduce the risk of fertility challenges and even pregnancy loss. It's about creating an optimal environment where your body feels safe and nourished, ready to support a healthy pregnancy.

Don’t know where to start? Here are 10 practical nutrition tips to boost your fertility and support your body for pregnancy and beyond!

1. Color your plate

I know, I know, you’ve heard this one before! We love talking about ‘eating the rainbow’ in nutrition, but it’s just so true!

Different colored fruits and veggies provide a variety of vitamins and minerals that help keep your body healthy and ready for pregnancy. 

I challenge my clients to add 1 or 2 colors to their plate at each meal to boost essential antioxidants, anti-inflammatory components, and vitamins and minerals needed for optimal fertility. 

Think green spinach, red peppers, purple berries, white cauliflower, and orange carrots. Each color provides different antioxidants and nutrients that protect the health your eggs.

Next time you're grocery shopping, challenge yourself to buy a varied selection of fruits and veggies - and maybe one new one each week you don’t normally add to your cart. 

And don't just buy them—make a plan to eat them! Add a different fruit or vegetable to each meal, experimenting with new cooking methods, spices, and seasonings to keep things fun and exciting. 

This variety not only keeps meals interesting but also boosts fertility byenhancing egg health and hormone balance and by supporting your gut health, which goes hand in hand with your odds of getting pregnant and having a healthy pregnancy.

2. Folate: Your fertility booster

You’ve probably heard the recommendation that you should be taking a folate supplement in the months before you get pregnant. 

The reasoning? 

Folate is a crucial B-vitamin that plays a vital role in cell growth and DNA repair and reduces the risk of early pregnancy complications like neural tube defects. Getting in more through food is an amazing goal to focus on!  
Eating folate-rich foods like spinach, lentils, and avocados can help improve egg quality and support healthy ovulation. Research shows that women with adequate folate levels are more likely to conceive and have a healthy pregnancy.

3. Fill up on omega-3s

Omega-3 fatty acids, found in fatty fish like salmon and sardines and in plant sources like walnuts and flaxseeds are essential for reducing inflammation and balancing hormones. 

Said in a different way, getting in more omega-3 supports your body to get pregnant easier and more successfully. 

These healthy fats help protect egg quality and increase your chances of conception. Omega-3s also support the structure of cell membranes, which is important for overall cell function.

If you’re not adding fish to your weekly meal rotation, now is the time to start!

4. Iron: Essential for egg health

Iron is a vital mineral for supporting ovulation and overall reproductive health. If your iron levels are low, it might be tougher to conceive, and it will also make it more difficult to have enough iron to support a healthy pregnancy. 

To boost your iron levels, your best bet for bioavailable iron is heme iron sources because your body likes them better - more of the iron will be absorbed and usable in your body. 

You can get heme iron from animal sources like meat (especially red meat or organ meat), seafood, and poultry. 

If you're not a big animal protein eater, you can still get lots of non-heme iron from your meals through beans and legumes, nuts and seeds, leafy greens, and dried fruit. Your body doesn’t absorb as much iron from these sources, but it all adds up to meet your needs. 

To help your body absorb more iron, especially with non-heme plant sources of iron, add vitamin C-rich foods to each meal, like bell peppers, broccoli or strawberries, to increase iron absorption!

5. Balance your plate with protein, fat, and fiber

To support your body to get pregnant, working on your blood sugar balance is incredibly impactful and can support both egg and sperm health, lower levels of inflammation, and healthy hormones. 

When making your meals, try to ensure each meal has a balance of protein, healthy fats, and fiber. This combination helps stabilize blood sugar levels and prevent insulin spikes that can disrupt hormone balance, affecting ovulation and fertility.

6. Choose complex ‘slow carbs’ when possible

Refined carbs can cause rapid spikes in blood sugar, long-term leading to inflammation and hormonal imbalances that negatively impact fertility. Refined carbs are your white bread, pastries, cookies and baked goods. 

These foods don’t need to be eliminated, especially if foods in that category bring you joy and pleasure, but it can make a huge impact to pick complex carbohydrates and whole grains more often when making your meals and snacks. 

Carbohydrates from sources like sweet potato, squash, quinoa, brown rice, and oats provide a slower, more sustained release of energy, helping to keep blood sugar levels stable and getting your body pregnancy-ready.

7. Stay hydrated

Water is essential for all bodily functions, including those related to reproduction. Adequate hydration supports nutrient transport, waste removal, and hormone production, all of which are vital for a healthy reproductive system.

The standard recommendation is to drink at least 8 glasses of water a day to keep your body well-hydrated, but I’d encourage you to think outside of the box.

For the best possible hydration, get in your liquids in a variety of forms, including natural electrolyte beverages (like bone broth and coconut water) and hydrating foods like lettuce, watermelon, and plenty of plants. 

Need a change from plain water? The Salted Watermelon Mineral Juice is a refreshing, hydrating alternative!

8. Be mindful of caffeine and alcohol

Moderation is key when it comes to caffeine and alcohol. Excessive caffeine and alcohol consumption can disrupt hormonal balance and affect fertility in both men and women.

This doesn’t mean you need to avoid either at all costs, but instead aim to limit coffee to 1-2 cups a day and enjoy alcohol only occasionally.

Looking for alternatives? Swap that extra cup of coffee with a nutrient-dense smoothie or herbal tea to maintain your energy without the caffeine spike.

9. Load up on antioxidants

Antioxidants protect your eggs from oxidative stress, which can damage cells and negatively impact your fertility. 

If you want to add foods to your diet to support your fertility and help your body get pregnant, foods high in antioxidants are the way to go!

Berries, nuts and seeds, dark leafy greens, olive oil, and fish like salmon are antioxidant-rich foods and have been shown time and time again to support fertility and better pregnancy outcomes.

10. Start a prenatal vitamin

Taking a high quality prenatal multivitamin before you get pregnant (for at least 3-6 months) can help you fill in any nutrient gaps, support egg health (and sperm health too, it’s a great idea for both partners to take a prenatal before conception!) and make sure you’re getting in enough folate, iron, choline, b12, vitamin D, and other nutrients that have been shown to impact both your fertility and your risk of early pregnancy complications.

In addition to your multi, you might want to add in other supplements to support your fertility and your egg health. It’s best to get personalized advice on what you uniquely can benefit from, but a powerful add-on to consider is CoQ10. High quality research has shown that taking CoQ10 is very safe and can improve the health of your eggs and has been shown to significantly increases the likelihood of pregnancy (including in women with PCOS and those undergoing fertility treatments). Here is a well-formulated and 3rd party tested option that comes with CoQ10 (Use code THEFOODDOULA for 20% off!). 

Making these tips work for you

If you read through these 10 tips and one or two really stood out for you, start there!

There’s no need to tackle all of the nutrition tips at once. Starting with one, putting it into action, then tackling a new goal when that one feels easy is the most beneficial thing you can do!

If you are committed to setting your body up for optimal fertility and a healthy pregnancy and want more guidance on how to do that, The Ultimate Preconception Nutrition Guide is filled with practical steps, delicious recipes, and evidence-based strategies to help you nourish yourself as you prepare for pregnancy.