PRE CONCEPTION CARE

WHO GUIDELINES
Preconception
care
Maximizing the gains for maternal and
child health
 Preconception

care
DEFINITION
Preconception care is the
provision of biomedi- cal,
behavioural and social health
interventions to women and
couples before conception
occurs.
 Preconception care

AIMS
To improve their health status, and reducing behaviors
and individual and environmental factors that
contribute to poor maternal and child health outcomes.
 To improve maternal and child health, in both the
short and long term .
 Opportunities to prevent and control diseases occur at
multiple stages of life; strong public health programmes
that use a life-course perspective from infancy
through childhood and adolescence to adulthood are
needed.
 To improve maternal and child health, it brings health
benefits to the adolescents, women and men,
 Preconception care
AIMS
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.
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.
 Existing risk for the women who may become pregnant.
 Existing risk which may affect a foetus if the women doesn’t
become pregnant.
 Preconception care
AIMS
To promote the prenatal health which include
developing positive attitude about sexuality ,
womanhood & child bearing.

To benefit women being treated for a condition such

as sickle cell anaemia , hypertension , heart disease
,diabetics this may cause a high risk pregnancy.
 Purpose of Preconception
care
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 &

 Why preconception

care?
Preconception care has a positive effect on a range of health
outcomes. Among others, preconception care can:
 • reduce maternal and child mortality
 • prevent unintended pregnancies
 • prevent complications during pregnancy and delivery
 • prevent stillbirths, preterm birth and lowbirth
 • prevent birth defects weight
 • prevent neonatal infections
 • prevent underweight and stunting
 • prevent vertical transmission of HIV/STIs
 • lower the risk of some forms of childhood
cance
 • rs
lower the risk of 2 diabetesan
type cardiovascular disease later d
in life.
 Areas addressed by the preconception care
package
 Nutritional conditions
 Vaccine- preventable diseases
 Genetic conditions
 Environmental health
 Infertility/ subfertility
 Female genital mutilation
 Too early, unwanted and rapid successive
pregnancies
 Sexually transmitted infections
 Human immunodefi ciency virus (HIV)
 Interpersonal violence
 Mental health
 Psychoactive substance use

 The COMPONENTS of preconception
care
 Nutritional  Screening for anaemia
conditions diabetes
and ƒ
 Supplementing iron
and folic acid ƒ

Information, education
and counselling ƒ
 Monitoring nutritional
status ƒ
 Supplementing energy
and nutrient-dense food ƒ
 Management of diabetes,
including counselling
people
with diabetes mellitus ƒ
 Promoting exercise
 Iodization of salt
 The COMPONENTS of preconception
care
 Tobacco  ƒScreening of women and
use for
girlstobacco use (smoking and
smokeless tobacco) at all clinical
visits using “5 As” (ask, advise,
assess, assist, arrange)
 ƒProviding brief tobacco
cessation
advice, pharmacotherapy
(including nicotine replacement
therapy, if available) and
intensive behavioural
counselling services ƒ
 Screening of all non-smokers
(menand women) and
advising
about harm of second-
hand
smoke and harmful effects on
pregnant women and
 The COMPONENTS of preconception
care
 Genetic  ƒTaking a thorough family
conditions history to identify
risk factors for
genetic conditions
 ƒFamily planning
 ƒGenetic counselling

ƒCarrier screening
and testing ƒ

Appropriate treatment
of genetic conditions ƒ
 Community-wide or
national screening
among populations at
high risk
 The COMPONENTS of preconception
care
 Environmental  Providing guidance
health information
and on environmental
hazards and prevention
 ƒProtecting from unnecessary
radiation exposure in
occupational, environmental and
medical settings ƒ

Avoiding unnecessary
pesticide use/providing
alternatives to pesticides
ƒProtecting from lead exposure

ƒInforming women of
childbearing age about levels of
methyl mercury in fish ƒ
 Promoting use of improved
stoves and cleaner
liquid/gaseous fuels
 The COMPONENTS of preconception
care
 Infertility/sub-fertility
 ƒCreating awareness
understanding
and of fertility and
infertility and their
preventable and
unpreventable causes. ƒ
 Defusing stigmatization of
infertility and assumption of fate. ƒ
 Screening and diagnosis of
couples
following 6–12 months of
attempting pregnancy, and
management of underlying
causes
of infertility/sub-fertility,
including past STIs. ƒ
 Counselling for
individuals/couples
diagnosed
 The COMPONENTS of preconception
care
 Interpersonal  Health promotion to prevent
violence violence
dating ƒ
 Providing age-appropriate
sexuality education that addresses gender
comprehensive
equality, human rights, and
sexual relations ƒ
 Combining and linking economic
empowerment, gender equality and
community mobilization activities ƒ
 Recognizing signs of violence
against women ƒ
 Providing health care services
(including
post-rape care), referral and
psychosocial
support to victims of violence ƒ
 Changing individual and social
norms
regarding drinking, screening and
 The COMPONENTS of preconception
care
 Too-early, unwanted and  ƒKeeping girls in school
rapid successive  ƒInfluencing cultural norms that
support early marriage and coerced
pregnancies sex ƒ
 Providing age-appropriate
comprehensive sexuality education
ƒ
 Providing contraceptives and
building
community support for preventing
early pregnancy and contraceptive
provision to adolescents
 ƒEmpowering girls to resist coerced sex
ƒ
 Engaging men and boys to critically
assess norms and practices regarding
gender-based violence and coerced sex
ƒ
 Educating women and couples about
 The COMPONENTS of preconception
care
 Sexually transmitted  ƒProviding age-appropriate
infections comprehensive sexuality education
and services ƒ
(STIs)  Promoting safe sex practices
through individual, group and
community-level behavioural
interventions ƒ
 Promoting condom use for dual
protection against STIs and
unwanted pregnancies ƒ
 Ensuring increased access
to
condoms ƒ
 Screening for STIs ƒ
 Increasing access to treatment
and other relevant health
services
 The COMPONENTS of preconception
care
 HI  Family planning
 ƒ
Promoting safe sex practices and
V method
dual for birth control (with
condoms) and STI control ƒ
 Provider-initiated HIV counselling and
testing, including male partner testing
ƒ
 Providing antiretroviral therapy
for prevention and pre-exposure
prophylaxis ƒ
 Providing male circumcision
 ƒProviding antiretroviral
prophylaxis for
women not eligible for, or not on,
antiretroviral therapy to prevent mother-
to-child transmission ƒ
 Determining eligibility for
 The COMPONENTS of preconception
care
 Mental  ƒAssessing psychosocial problems
health ƒ
 psychosocial counselling
Providing educational and
before and during pregnancy
ƒ
 Counselling, treating and
managing depression in
women planning pregnancy
and other women of
childbearing age ƒ
 Strengthening community
networks and promoting women’s
empowerment
 ƒImproving access to education for
women of childbearing age ƒ
 Reducing economic insecurity
 The COMPONENTS of preconception
care
 Psychoactive  ƒScreening for substance
substance use ƒ
use  Providing brief interventions
and treatment when needed
ƒ
 Treating substance use
disorders, including
pharmacological and
psychological interventions ƒ
 Providing family planning
assistance for families with
substance use disorders
(including postpartum and
between pregnancies) ƒ
 Establishing prevention
programmes to reduce
 The COMPONENTS of preconception
care
 ƒVaccination against rubella ƒ
 Vaccine-
 Vaccination against tetanus
preventa and diphtheria ƒ
ble  Vaccination against Hepatitis

diseases B
 The COMPONENTS of preconception
care
 Female genital  ƒDiscussing and discouraging
mutilation (FGM) the practice with the girl and
her parents and/ or partner
ƒ
 Screening women and girls for
FGM to detect complications ƒ
 Informing women and couples
about complications of FGM
and about access to treatment ƒ
 Carrying out defibulation of
infibulated or sealed girls and
women before or early in
pregnancy ƒ
 Removing cysts and treating
 Promotion of a women for healthy
pregnancy
 Folic acid
 Proper immunization for the women

 Healthy behaviours

 Other nutritional supplements

 Blood tests

 Other check up
 Steps can the women can take to improve health
before pregnancy
Eat a well balanced diet.
Drink plenty of water
Take nutritional
supplements wisely
Quit or cut down smoking
cigarettes Avoid caffeine
Avoid alcohol
Avoid medication
 Steps can the women can take to improve health
before pregnancy
 If have a cat, get someone else to empty
the kitty litter due to the risk of infection
with toxoplasmosis.
 If exercising make sure to wear cool ,

comfortable cloth ing & drink plenty of water.

 If do not exercise , try to start a reasonable

& regular exercise routine.

 Visit a health care practitioner specializing in

preconception care.
 PRECONCEPTION CARE FOR MEN
STOP SMOKING
USE MOBILE PHONESONLY WHEN NEEDED
AVOID INCREASED TEMPERATURE AROUND GENITALS
CUT BACK ON CAFFINE
AVOID MEDICINES THAT IMPAIR FERTILITY & DESIRE SEX
DESIRE
INCULCATE A RELAXING SCHEDULE
STOP CONSUMING ALCOHOL & STEROIDS
MAINTAIN A HEALTHY WEIGHT
PLAN FOR FINANCES
THINK ABOUT PARENTING