Pre-conception care can be found as tedious by new mothers; with a lot of dos and don’ts during the crucial period of pre-conception to childbirth, this abundant and comprehensive information may be neglected at some point. Health providers were also hesitant and failed at some point in providing necessary maternal health education due to inflicting stress on pregnant women, but for this, it is important to let mothers know that ignorance is not bliss. It is the foundation of prenatal care and good preconception to secure adequacy and avoid toxicity in the gestational phase (Genuis & Genuis, 2016) to ensure infants are born healthy, safe and have reduced risks for both short- and long-term diseases, may it be at have an early or late onset.
Chronic diseases are especially attributed to modifiable prenatal factors, this includes autism, other neurodevelopmental disorders, learning disabilities, asthma, allergies, and a myriad of other diseases. Chronic diseases not only manifest at the early stage of the child, but also adult diseases such as multiple sclerosis, eating disorders, cardiovascular disease, and compromised bone health have fetal origins. We need to acknowledge that diseases are not only a product of internal or bodily functions but rather our interaction with our environment has a greater contribution to disease development. In addition, a child in utero is extremely sensitive to environmental factors and may yield devastating effects to its development mainly due to organ immaturity.
Pre-conception care entails a multitude of precautions and requirements to ensure healthy pregnancy and infant. New mothers are highly encouraged to adequately take and include necessary nutrients in their diet such vitamin D, folate, magnesium, and DHA to prevent and reduce risk of complications. A healthy biome is also necessary to ensure normal fetal growth and development. It has been found out that maternal flora is highly associated with fetal disease development and protection. Moreover, vagina-delivered infants are less susceptible to diseases such as asthma, systemic connective tissue disorders, juvenile arthritis, IBD, immune deficiency and leukemia than caesarian-delivered infants. This is due to the fact that during vaginal delivery, a transmission of microbiome to the neonate occurs which greatly affects health from birth to childhood (Genuis & Genuis, 2016).
Maternal exposure to chemicals we usually consume every day can result to health problems such as autism, mental illnesses, cancer, and metabolic disorders. Even alcohol exposure is completely prohibited and has established to have ‘no safe dose’. Other toxicants that have serious effects during gestational period include flame retardant chemicals, bisphenol A, phthalates, pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, solvents, air pollution, home renovation and heavy metals. Mothers who closely work with solvents, paint and petroleum products during pregnancy are likely to have children with cardiac and neurological abnormalities. These are significant notes to include during maternal health education.
Pre-conception care is as vital as any tendered care in the entirety of a human’s life.
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