A Preconception Checklist

Your Finances

____ Find out if your insurance covers 100 percent of prenatal care/delivery. You may need to change to an in-network doctor, or choose one local hospital over another.

____ If you don't have insurance, get some now. Depending on your location, individual HMO policies start at around $200 a month -- substantially less than the cost of medical care for a pregnancy from start to finish.

____ See an accountant or financial planner to discuss savings plans, both for baby's college and for other big-ticket items like nannies, day care, private preschools, and unfunded maternity or paternity leave.

____ Determine whether you need two incomes to get by. If one of you wants to scale back to part-time, or quit working altogether to stay with the baby, start planning now.

____ If you plan to keep working, find out about your company's maternity leave, telecommuting, and flextime policies.

____ Start researching life insurance. You'll both need coverage once you have a child.