Your Pre-Pregnancy To-Do List

• Make a doctor's appointment for a checkup/wellness visit.
  
• Make sure to get and begin taking prenatal vitamins.
  
• Check with your doctor about any over-the-counter and prescription medications you currently take.
  
• See your dentist for a cleaning or checkup if you have not done so in the last six months. Untreated gum disease is linked to preterm birth.
  
• Look into local prenatal exercise classes.
  
• Review maternity/paternity leave options at work and your health insurance's maternity coverage.
  
• Develop a maternity and baby budget.
  
• If you smoke, quit.
  
• Limit alcohol and caffeine intake.
  
• Stock your refrigerator with healthy foods and snacks.

Published July 25, 2005.

SOURCES: Donnica Moore, MD, women's health expert, Far Hills, N.J. Randy S. Morris, MD, medical director of IVF 1, Chicago and Naperville, Ill.