2. DEFINITION
• Maximizing the gains for maternal and child health.
• Preconception care is the provision of biomedical,
behavioral and social health interventions to women
and couples before conception occurs.
3. AIMS OF PRECONCEPTION CARE
• Improve maternal and child health status.
• Reducing environmental factors that contribute to poor
maternal and child health outcomes.
• Prevention and control diseases.
• Health benefits to the adolescents, women and men,
irrespective of their plans to become parents.
• To secure optimal health & nutritional condition in both
parents not only improves the chances of conception but
reduces the possibility of prenatal death & many congenital
anomalies.
4. • To ensure that the women & her partner are in optimal state
of physical & emotional heath at the onset of pregnancy.
• To access normal health by a child bearing women, while at
the same time identifying -
– Existing or emerging illness or disease which may have
gone undetected before.
• To develop positive attitude about sexuality , womanhood &
child bearing.
• To benefit women being treated for a condition such as sickle
cell anaemia , thalassemia, hypertension , heart disease
,diabetics this may cause a high risk pregnancy.
5. IMPORTANCE
• Establish lifestyle behaviours to maintain optimum health.
• Identify & treat risk ( e.G. Medical condition, substance abuse
before.
• Conceive a pregnancy with out necessary risk factors.
• Prepare people psychologically for pregnancy & the
responsibilities to become with parenthhood.
• Reduce maternal and child mortality
• Prevent unwanted pregnancies
• Prevent complications during pregnancy and delivery
• Prevent birth defects
• Prevent underweight
6. COMPONENTS OF PRECONCEPTION
CARE
1) Nutritional conditions
2) Genetic conditions
3) Environmental health
4) Infertility/ subfertility
5) Too early, unwanted and rapid successive pregnancies
6) Sexually transmitted infections and HIV
7) Interpersonal violence
8) Mental health
9) Psychoactive substance use
10) Tobacco use
7. NUTRITIONAL CONDITIONS
• Screening for anaemia and
diabetes.
• Supplementing iron and
folic acid.
• Information, education and
counselling
• Monitoring nutritional
status
• Supplementing energy and
nutrient-dense food
• Promoting exercise
• Use of Iodization of salt
TOBACCO USE
• Screening of women and girls
for tobacco use (smoking and
smokeless tobacco)
• Providing brief tobacco
cessation advice.
• Pharmacotherapy (including
nicotine replacement therapy,
if available) and intensive
behavioural counselling.
• Screening of non-smokers
and advising about harm of
second-hand smoke and
harmful effects on pregnant
women and unborn children.
8. GENETIC CONDITIONS
• Identify risk factors for
genetic conditions
• Genetic counselling
• Carrier screening and
testing
• Appropriate treatment of
genetic conditions
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
• Providing guidance and
information on
environmental hazards and
prevention.
• Protecting from
unnecessary radiation
exposure in occupational,
environmental and medical
settings
• Avoiding unnecessary
pesticide use/providing
alternatives to pesticides
• Protecting from lead
exposure
9. INFERTILITY/SUB-FERTILITY
• Creating awareness and
understanding of fertility and
infertility and their
preventable and
unpreventable causes.
• Defusing stigmatization of
infertility.
• Screening and diagnosis of
couples following 6–12
months of attempting
pregnancy, and management
of underlying causes of
infertility/sub-fertility.
• Counselling for
individuals/couples diagnosed
with unpreventable cause of
infertility/sub-fertility.
INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE
• Providing age-appropriate
comprehensive sexuality
education that addresses gender
equality, human rights.
• Women empowerment.
• Recognizing signs of violence
against women .
• Providing health care services
(including post-rape care),
referral and psychosocial
support to victims of violence.
• Changing social norms regarding
drinking, screening and
counseling of people and
treating people who have
alcohol use disorders.
10. TOO-EARLY, UNWANTED AND
RAPID SUCCESSIVE PREGNANCIES
• Providing age-appropriate
comprehensive sexuality
education
• Providing contraceptives and
building community support for
preventing early pregnancy.
• Empowering girls to resist
coerced sex.
• Engaging men and boys to
critically assess norms and
practices regarding gender-
based violence and coerced sex.
• Educating women and couples
about the dangers to the baby
and mother of short birth
intervals
SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED
INFECTIONS (STIS)
• Promoting safe sex practices
through community-level
interventions.
• Ensuring increased and easy
access to contraceptive
devices.
• Screening for STIs and
management.
11. MENTAL HEALTH
• Assessing psychosocial
problems
• Providing educational and
psychosocial counseling
before and during
pregnancy
• Counseling, treating and
managing depression in
women planning pregnancy
and other women of
childbearing age
• Strengthening community
networks and promoting
women’s empowerment
PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCE USE
• Screening for substance use
• Treating substance use
disorders, including
pharmacological and
psychological interventions
• Providing assistance for
families with substance use
disorders (including
postpartum and between
pregnancies)
• Establishing prevention
programes to reduce
substance use in adolescents.
12. STEPS TO IMPROVE HEALTH BEFORE
PREGNANCY
• Eat a well balanced diet.
• Maintain healthy weight
• Drink plenty of water
• Take nutritional supplements
• Quit or cut down smoking cigarettes
• Avoid caffeine
• Avoid alcohol
• Avoid medication abuse
• Regular exercise routine make sure to wear cool , comfortable
clothing
13. PRECONCEPTION ADVICE FOR MEN
• Stop smoking
• Use mobile phones only when needed
• Avoid increased temperature around genitals
• Cut back on caffeine
• Avoid medicines that impair fertility
• Follow a relaxing schedule
• Stop consuming alcohol & steroids
• Maintain a healthy weight
• Plan for finances
• Think about parenting