PRECONCEPTION CARE:

Preconception health refers to the wellbeing of women and men during their reproductive years,

which are the years they can have a child. It focuses on taking steps to ensure the wellbeing of a

infant they might have at some point within the future (CDC, 2014).

Preconception Care is an intervention starting from adolescence until near conception (Sainafat

et al., 2020). However, this type of care includes all such measures with the help of which the

health status of females is improved as it is the provision of behavioral, social and biomedical

health interventions. Preconception care reduces all such environmental, individual, and

behavioral factors that might contribute to poor child health outcomes as well as poor maternal

health (Preconception Care, 2019).

Preconception care does not only include having essential nutrients and exercises but also means

taking other necessary measures to eliminate any risk of conception complications. They may

include, identifying health conditions that run in your or your partner’s family or ethnic group,

finding the cause of a condition you had in a past pregnancy and treating health conditions before

pregnancy (Getting Ready for Pregnancy: Preconception Health, n.d.).

GOALS OF PECONCEPTION CARE:

Following are major goals of preconception care:

 To ensure that a female enters the stage of pregnancy with an optimal health state

 To keep the female as well as the fetus safe

 To improve the pregnancy outcome by minimizing risks to the fetus as well the mother

 To preparing the females psychologically for pregnancy

  To identify any risks and treat them beforehand (Zoeken, 2018)

IMPORTANCE OF PRECONCEPTION CARE:

Preconception care and health is not only essential for those females who are planning pregnancy

however, it is important for every female as it encourages the females to opt for healthy habits

take control. The females are encouraged to feel good about their lives, live well and be healthy

by adopting a healthy lifestyle. Preconception care is of great significance as it improves the

maternal health and pregnancy outcomes to great extent. Moreover, such care helps in detecting

any pregnancy abnormality which is likely to affect the baby as well as the mother. A study

reported by WHO showed the positive impact of preconception care on maternal as well as the

child health outcomes (Kumari, 2020).

For babies, preconception health means their parents took steps to get healthy before pregnancy.

Such babies are less likely to be born preterm or have a low birthweight. They are more likely to

be born without birth defects or other disabling conditions (CDC, 2014).

According to different researches it has been found that individual factors, environmental factors

and health issues can affect the child and the mother. Ways of making people aware of different

interventions for preconception care are formulated. There are different groups who could

benefit from preconception care. It can provide many health and social benefits to the people as

morbidity and mortality rate is high in every type of country. But with this it has its risks. All of

it will be directed towards improving health of mother and the child rather than improving the

health for the individual women for her own good health. In a conservative society where people

belong from low- or middle-income background, there are many barriers which includes lack of

complete comprehensive preconception program, future parents having limited information

about the benefits of preconception care, poor organization about its benefits and conflicting vies

of healthcare professionals. These barriers if taken care off in a comprehensive manner with a

sense of responsibility, it can lead to effectively formed interventions. It will also change the

course of mother child mortality and morbidity rate in economically deprived countries (Mason,

E., Chandra-Mouli, V., Baltag, V., Christensen, C., Lassi, Z. S., & Bhutta, Z. A, 2016).
REFERENCES:

CDC. (2014, August 29). Overview | Preconception Care | CDC. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/preconception/overview.html

Importance of Preconception Care - Zoeken. (2018). Retrieved September 14, 2022, from
https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=avOdEbo5&id=470EAEF1A

Kumari, S. (2020). Preconceptional care. Retrieved September 14, 2022, from

https://www.slideshare.net/SantoshKumari11/preconceptional-care

Preconception Care. (2019). Retrieved September 14, 2022, from

https://medlineplus.gov/preconceptioncare.html

Sainafat, A., Asmawati, Ikhlasiah, M., Mat, S. B., & Hassan, H. C. (2020). Preconception care in
adolescents. Enfermería Clínica, 30, 73–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enfcli.2019.11.024