If you’re thinking about getting pregnant later in life, you need to take certain steps right now to help keep your body in peak baby-making shape.

    CONSIDERING you probably spend a good amount of energy trying to block conception, it’s kind of odd to think about preparing yourself for a day when you might want to raise the gate to your reproductive system and having a baby. Maybe you’re not at that point now — you’re happily putting in long hours at a job you love, you’re still enjoying being able to jump in the car for a road trip on a moment’s notice, or you just haven’t yet found a guy who’s worthy of mixing his DNA with yours.

    Yet everywhere you look, an article or book is there to remind you that your fertility drops every year you wait. While you can’t stop the clock on the most important fertility factor — your age — there are plenty of lifestyle changes you can make now to up your odds of getting pregnant later.

    If you want to get

    pregnant in 5 years...

    >See your doctor. If you want to keep your body baby-ready, staying in top physical shape is essential. That means getting any fertility-sapping health issues — like diabetes, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), or endometriosis — under control; diagnosing and treating STDs; and devising a healthy diet and exercise plan. If you’re past 35 and wondering whether you have the option of waiting a few more years, you can also ask your doc to do a little detective work on what’s known as your ovarian reserve.

    There are fertility tests that can gauge how many eggs are still sitting on the bench waiting for their turn at bat. The best ones are an ultrasound to count the number of follicles in your ovaries and a blood test to check your hormone levels at certain points in your cycle.

    >Brush and floss. Could something as simple as flossing your teeth help keep you fertile? Perhaps. “Several studies have indicated that a woman’s oral health may be related to her reproductive success,” says Susan Karabin, a spokesperson for the American Academy of Periodontology.

    >Practice safe sex. You wouldn’t think condoms would come up in a conversation about getting pregnant, but safe sex can be a crucial factor in your future ability to get knocked up. If you contract an STD such as gonorrhea or chlamydia and it goes untreated, it can lead to a serious condition called pelvic inflammatory disease, which can scar the fallopian tubes, causing infertility.

    >Stamp out cigarettes. If higher rates of lung cancer and breast cancer haven’t made you swear off smoking, consider this: The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) estimates that lighting up is linked to 13 percent of infertility cases.

    >Take your vitamins. “Every woman of reproductive age — even if you’re not actively trying to get pregnant — should take a multivitamin containing folic acid,” says Jorge Chavarro, an instructor at Harvard Medical School and co-author of “The Fertility Diet.” According to Chavarro, folic acid appears to improve fertility by stimulating ovulation and giving an embryo essential proteins needed for survival. His research also found that women who took iron supplements were 40 percent less likely to have fertility problems.

    If you want to get

    pregnant in 2 years,

    do all of the above, plus...

    >Switch up your grocery list. In Chavarro’s groundbreaking study of the dietary habits of more than 18,000 nurses who were trying to get pregnant, he found some striking connections between food and fertility. There are four basic rules of a baby-friendly diet:

    1. Choose slowly digested carbohydrates (such as vegetables and whole grains) over highly processed ones (such as white bread and white rice).

    2. Eliminate trans fats.

    3. Pick unsaturated fats over saturated fats.

    4. Get the majority of your protein from plants rather than animals.

    >Maintain a healthy weight. When it comes to your weight, the “fertility zone” is a body mass index between 20 and 24, Chavarro says. Weigh too much and you have a greater likelihood of irregular periods and ovulation disorders; weigh too little and you may not ovulate at all, since body fat triggers the hormones that tell your ovaries to release an egg.

    >Move your butt. “Our research found that 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise each day on most days of the week is related to a lower risk of infertility,” says Chavarro. Too much exercise, though — anything that brings you to less than 17 percent body fat, or a BMI of 19 or lower — can interfere with ovulation.

    >Upgrade your water bottle. While you’re working up a sweat, you’ll work up a thirst — but make sure you swig your water from a BPA-free bottle. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, recently looked at the BPA levels in women undergoing IVF and found a correlation between the level of the chemical in the blood and the ability to conceive. The theory is that BPA, which mimics estrogen, can mess with the balance of hormones in your body.

    If you want to get

    pregnant in 1 year,

    do all of the above, plus...

    >Save your calories for ice cream. If you add one serving of full-fat dairy to your diet per day, such as whole milk on your cereal instead of skim, you can actually increase your chances of getting pregnant, according to Chavarro’s research. There is one caveat, however: You have to make adjustments to the rest of your diet so you don’t gain weight.

    >Rethink your birth control. Now that you’re getting closer to wanting a little munchkin, it’s time to think about what’s kept you from having one in the past. Barrier methods (such as condoms or a diaphragm) are easy: simply stop using them the day you’re ready to get pregnant. If you have an IUD, your fertility will return as soon as your doctor takes it out. The same goes for pill users. But, there is one form of birth control that takes time to exit your system before you can get pregnant: If you’ve had Depo-Provera injections, it can take up to 10 months to become fertile again.

    >Cut down on the booze and caffeine. Some studies show that having one to five alcoholic drinks per week can drop your chances of conceiving that month by as much as 50 percent. While there is no real consensus, some studies suggest that consuming more than 300 milligrams of caffeine a day may increase your risk of endometriosis or fallopian tube problems.

    >Reduce stress. Stress can put a damper on fertility by messing with the brain signals that tell your body to ovulate. A study in Human Reproduction showed that couples were more likely to conceive during months they considered themselves relaxed. An effective way to start reducing stress now is to focus on what you appreciate in your life. Every day, write down three things that you love about your life, and take at least 15 minutes to meditate, do yoga, or listen to relaxing music. Believe us, a few years from now, when that baby you waited for is finally here, and you’re groggily but happily dealing with colic and diaper rash, these relaxation skills will come in handy! (SD-Agencies)