Discuss how preconception care contributes to healthy pregnancy and positive pregnancy outcomes.
What we have to understand from the idea of a healthy pregnancy is that it happens not only when the egg cell is fertilized by the sperm cell or when the mother tested positive from the pregnancy test. It is important to take note that when a woman becomes pregnant, the environment where the child will develop is already set to stone. This means that the lifestyle of the mother before pregnancy is crucial in determining the overall pregnancy outcome.
This is the reason why preconception care is important. Because as much as possible, before the child develops, the mother’s womb and health need to be ideal as much as possible. This means that when a mother is previously engaged in unhealthy habits or exposed to an unhealthy environment, it must be corrected ahead of pregnancy. This looks like smoking cessation and stopping alcohol intake, observing the amount and type of food she eats (including vitamin and mineral supplements), reducing EMR exposure and pollution, and minimizing contacts from harmful chemicals that may be present in paints, air-fresheners, and cleaning agents.
Although preconception care is very important and crucial in leading to a healthy pregnancy and positive pregnancy outcomes, what's striking for me is that even the medical and healthcare community are not properly trained to assess and conduct such care for potential mothers. This is harmful because as healthcare professionals, with the changing landscape and advancement that pose risk to the population (e.g., the rise of nanoparticles, genetic modification, etc.) paired with the increasing knowledge regarding these teratogenic agents, it is the responsibility of the healthcare community to bridge this gap and ensure that patients will be well aware of the things that pose threat to their children.
Maternal health providers including nurses should change the notion that providing education and counseling for the mother is only important after knowing that one is pregnant. It has to extend far beyond the first trimester because providing care only during this period can already significantly affect the pregnancy outcome. This is because of several reasons that were mentioned in the article such as the first trimester being a critical point of development where the formation of vital organs begins. Another reason is that providing preconception care during the first trimester is already too late since the mother may be fatigued at this time where lifestyle changes and additional medical interventions may be much more stressful, or worst, they may no longer be possible due to certain considerations for the growing fetus.
Indeed, preconception care can ultimately contribute to a healthy pregnancy and positive pregnancy outcomes. This not only ensures that the child will grow in a safe and healthy environment, but rather it also protects the child from future harm and diseases that may manifest later in life. This is why as future healthcare professionals, we have the ability not only to protect and care for the mother and child but as well as to the greater society wherein we can reduce the amount of money spent on the pandemic of chronic diseases such as autism, cancer, cardiac and brain diseases that may be tied to poor or lack of preconception care.
Reference:
Genuis, S. J., & Genuis, R. A. (2016). Preconception Care: A New Standard of Care within Maternal Health Services. BioMed Research International, 2016, 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/6150976