Your doctor might recommend that you make lifestyle changes before you get pregnant. These might include:

• getting to a healthy weight
• Improving diet/exercise habits
• eliminating alcohol
• quitting smoking, if you smoke
• cutting back on caffeine

If you drink a lot of coffee or soda, it may be helpful to begin cutting back now.

You should also start taking a prenatal vitamin with at least 400 micrograms of folic acid each day as soon as you decide to start trying to conceive. This is to reduce the risk of certain birth defects.