pre-conception appt. necessary?

[Anonymous]

In addition to all the great tips offered (especially about the prenatal vitamins), if you want to be more familiar and comfortable with the conception process and/or maximize the odds of conceiving, I highly recommend reading "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" by Tony Weschler. Best of luck!

[Anonymous]

You may have anlready done this, but if you and DH have health insurance through different policies, it's worth checking whether each of them cover the Jewish panel of genetic tests. In my case, DH's insurance covered the tests, but mine did not. Having him get the tests and not me saved us a couple thousand $$$s

[Anonymous]

My OB/GYN mentioned pre-conception visits as an option and something to consider...I'm a planner by nature, so I liked the idea. It lets you get some bloodwork out of the way (the office I went to offered cystic fibrosis screening and a few other things at the pre-conception visit), can be a good time to figure out what medications you may want to consider stopping (I had no idea my allergy medicine would make it onto this list), and what things you may want to start/stop doing. I don't think it hurts to have one of these visits, but I don't think it hurts to skip it either.

[Anonymous]

PP here who mentioned shopping OBs as part of my pre-natal visits plan. It depended on the practice whether or not they would give a consult or make you do a regular OB visit with the consult. I think I ended up getting two regular GYN exams just so I could visit Dr.s (fun fun!--and that did cause a little trouble with my insurance co.). At the consult you can use the time to ask questions about getting pregnant, but also about their philosophy. You can get a feel for how strict they will be with their recommendations about food, meds, etc., their ideas about labor, etc. You can observe their practice, is it always crowded, is the wait long, how are their staff, etc. Learn who you will call with questions (leave a message for dr. or an on-staff nurse?). I second the other PP's post about checking both you and your husband's insurance. Maternity coverage varies greatly! We ended up switching from my husband's coverage to mine and saving hundreds of dollars on co-pays, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You may have anlready done this, but if you and DH have health insurance through different policies, it's worth checking whether each of them cover the Jewish panel of genetic tests. In my case, DH's insurance covered the tests, but mine did not. Having him get the tests and not me saved us a couple thousand $$$s

I researched this too as I was really worried about having to pay a lot of money for genetic tests even before I got pregnant. I was told that the Jewish panel is considered "standard of care" (if both partners are Jewish at least) and my insurance didn't have any issues paying it. But it's definitely worth looking into.