Michael Lu

Michael C. Lu, MD, MPH is a leading expert in the new field of Preconception Care and the author of Get Ready to Get Pregnant: Your Complete Prepregnancy Guide to Making a Smart and Healthy Baby (Collins) – the only book spelling out exactly how to prepare women for a healthy pregnancy – and a healthy child. He is the director of the Preconception Care Clinic and an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and public health at University of California Los Angeles Medical Center. Widely recognized for his research, teaching, and clinical care, he has received many awards, including the 2003 National Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology Young Professional Achievement Award and the 2004 American Public Health Association Maternal and Child Health Section Young Professional Award for his research on pregnancy outcomes. He was also voted one of the Best Doctors in America since 2005. Lu is highly sought after as a keynote speaker at professional conferences and at healthcare industry meetings. He recently gave the keynote address at the Centers for Disease Control’s Second National Summit on Preconception Health and Healthcare.

Lu received his bachelor’s degrees from Stanford University, master’s degrees from University of California Berkeley, and medical degree from University of California San Francisco. He recently served on the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine Committee (IOM) on Understanding Prematurity, and is currently serving on the IOM Committee to Reexamine IOM Weight Guidelines. He is a member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Select Panel on Preconception Care, and a lead investigator for the National Children’s Study in Los Angeles.  Lu teaches obstetrics and gynecology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and maternal and child health at the UCLA School of Public Health. He has received numerous awards for his teaching, including Excellence in Teaching Awards from the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Lu has also been appointed to two National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committees.

Recent studies into how our genes are turned on and off have raised many questions about our lifestyle choices, but no market has more questions than women contemplating pregnancy. Very few doctors have the answers because the study of preconception is so new. Often doctors have as many questions as their patients. Lu has the answers. In Get Ready to Get Pregnant he provides a unique source of information and advice that the millions of American women planning to get pregnant can turn to today to help them have a healthy pregnancy and baby even after the child grows up. Lu spells out exactly how women should prepare themselves for pregnancy with a plan that lays the groundwork for the child’s health throughout the his/her entire life.

Lu lives in Los Angeles with his wife and their two smart and healthy girls.

Get Ready to Get Pregnant: Preconception Health and Health Care

How to Make a Smart and Healthy Baby

You are What Your Mother Ate: Nutrition During Pregnancy

Stress, Resilience, and Women’s Health

How to Detoxify Your Womb Before Pregnancy: Reproductive Toxicology

Get Ready for Fatherhood