We often talk about prenatal care — folic acid, iron supplements, fertility-friendly diets. But what if the real foundation for a healthy pregnancy begins much earlier — in the year before conception? “The moment you start thinking about having a baby is the moment you begin parenting,” says Khushboo Jain Tibrewala, nutritionist and diabetes educator. Science now supports what traditional wisdom has long believed: the health of both parents before pregnancy significantly impacts not just the ability to conceive but also the long-term health of the child. From immunity to metabolism, much is already decided before that first positive pregnancy test.

Why Your Health Before Pregnancy Matters

Multiple studies — including those published in The Lancet and Nature Reviews Endocrinology — confirm that a parent’s preconception health influences the baby’s risk for chronic diseases like diabetes, obesity, and autoimmune disorders.

What changes when parents prepare early:

• Better nutrient stores: Nutrients like B12, folate, iron, and omega-3s need to be present well before pregnancy. Deficiencies can’t always be fixed once conception has occurred.

• Healthier gene expression: Your genes don’t work in isolation. Epigenetics — the science of how lifestyle influences gene expression — plays a key role in shaping the baby’s development.

• Lower toxin exposure: Cleaning up your diet and lifestyle (alcohol, smoking, processed foods, late nights) reduces the body’s toxic load, making conception and fetal development healthier.

• Metabolic improvements: Conditions like insulin resistance, if addressed before conception, reduce complications such as gestational diabetes and support healthier outcomes for both mother and child.

Epigenetics: Why It Matters

Epigenetics can be thought of as a dimmer switch for your genes. The way you live — food, stress, toxins — can activate or silence genes. For example, if diabetes runs in your family, your lifestyle before conception can influence whether that gene turns “on” or stays silent.

This matters equally for men. Poor metabolic health, excessive alcohol, or lack of sleep can reduce sperm quality — affecting not just fertilisation but the child’s long-term development.

Addressing Health Beforehand Can Prevent Complications

Take gestational diabetes. Most women who develop it already had insulin resistance before pregnancy. If this is addressed early — through better nutrition, regular movement, and stress management — the risk of complications, including future type 2 diabetes, goes down.

Men, too, can benefit. Sperm health improves with better nutrition, reduced stress, and improved sleep — all of which influence fertility and fetal development.

Culture is Also Inherited

Children don’t learn health through lectures — they learn by watching. If they grow up in homes where meals are home-cooked, movement is routine, and sleep is respected, they’ll naturally adopt these behaviours.

Health is not just genetic. It’s cultural. And that culture begins with how parents live even before the child exists.

What Ayurveda Has Always Said

Ayurveda speaks of garbha sanskar — preparing both body and mind before conception. It recommends cleansing, nourishment, and emotional balance. The idea: only a well-prepared field can nurture a strong seed.

10 Things You Should Do a Year Before Trying to Conceive?

1. Eat local, seasonal foods

2. Include healthy fats: soaked nuts & seeds, coconut, avocado, whole eggs, fatty fish, ghee, extra virgin olive oil

3. Support gut health: with fermented foods like homemade curd, kanji, sauerkraut, koozh, panta bhaat

4. Move regularly: walking, yoga, swimming, strength training

5. Reduce toxins: cut down plastics, harsh cosmetics, processed foods

6. Focus on nourishment, not dieting

7. Prioritise mental wellbeing: therapy, journaling, breathwork

8. Involve both partners: sperm health is equally important

9. Work on core strength – this is mainly for women, this helps in delivery

10. Include a protein in every meal – dals, sprouts, lentils, besan, eggs, dairy, chicken, fish, beans, tofu

We live in an age where chronic diseases begin young — but we also have the tools to prevent them. Preconception care is not an add-on. It’s foundational. It’s your first act of parenting — and perhaps, the most important one.