Dublin-based GP, Sinead Beirne joined Ivan and Chis on Newstalk Breakfast this morning to discuss some of the commonly-asked questions about conception and how to help to ensure a safe, healthy pregnancy.

Five main areas were covered from the role of men to whether or not you should be drinking or exercising.

Folic Acid

Folic acid is a vital element of the pregnancy period and women are often encouraged to take it by their obstetricians. Dr Beirne told Breakfast that it was essential and that it should be taken before the baby is conceived.

"That's essential and you need to be taking folic acid twelve weeks before you actually conceive. So if you're thinking about getting pregnant you absolutely should be taking a folic acid supplement," Dr Beirne said.

Alcohol and smoking

She continued, highlighting the threats associated with both smoking and drinking, saying that they both posed dangers during conception and during pregnancy.

"If you're planning to get pregnant and you smoke, you should absolutely stop smoking. We know that smoking cigarettes reduces fertility for both men and women.

"It (drinking) causes impotence, so someone might have the best intention in the world and they have a problem having intercourse because they've drunk too much. It definitely effects the fertility - there are studies that show it can effect sperm."

While Dr Beirbe would never encourage drinking during pregnancy, she really urges people to avoid drink for the first three months and said that after that, if people are very keen, they could have one glass a week.

Caffeine

When it comes to caffeine, two cups of coffee is as much that should be drunk in a day and also reminded listeners that caffeine was present in chocolate and tea, as well as studies have shown a potential link between caffeine and miscarriages.

Dre Beirne also noted: "You also get people doing crazy things as well like having a few cans of red bull a day and they're pregnant or planning to get pregnant.

"Caffeine is a drug and it does funny things. It can cause your pulse to go up and your blood pressure to go up it does have effects and it makes us all very jittery so too much of that while you're pregnant is not good."

The men

Dr Beirne also said that men also have a role in the pregnancy too.

"We hear about this sympathetic eating that men do when their wives are pregnant and the wives eat more and therefore the men eat more just to make them feel go, just so that they're not on their own getting fat."

Exercise

Running and exercising isn't overly encouraged during the pregnancy period and indeed in the build up to it either, especially for those who have only recently taken up strenuous exercise.

"If you have always been a runner then it's probably ok for a small percentage of people but I wouldn't advise running. It's better to run and to swim and do sort of low intensity exercise.

"Certainly you wouldn't want ot have recently taken it up and be planning to get pregnant because sometimes too high an intensity can effect ovulation and make it difficult to get pregnant."

You can listen to the best of today's Breakfast show below: