Discuss how preconception care contributes to healthy pregnancy and positive pregnancy outcomes. Post answers as reply in the discussion forum.
Preconception care (PCC), pertaining to the set of interventions taken before conception to maximize health outcomes, aims to determine and modify risks to the women’s health or pregnancy outcome through prevention and management. Action steps such as adequate preparation of nutritional status as well as avoidance of chemical, electromagnetic radiation, and other toxic exposures significantly contribute to a healthier pregnancy for reproductive-aged women. These practices stem from the knowledge that etiologies of most chronic illnesses come from modifiable environmental determinants rather than simply genetic predestination. Thus, modification of environmental factors prior to conception offers the possibility of precluding various mental and physical health conditions.
Preconception care provides health education and preparation for pregnancy that would better aid the critical development of the fetus during its first weeks or the first trimester on the basis of ensuring that it receives the health determinants required for it to thrive while avoiding any factors that may cause harm or defects in the baby’s development. During gestation in particular, the exquisitely intricate processes that direct the growth and development of early human life are profoundly sensitive to nutritional requirements and vulnerable to environmental insults. For instance, insufficiency of required nutrients or minute adverse exposures to toxic substances such as drugs or alcohol during critical phases of development or even at the start of pregnancy may already have serious, dramatic, and lifelong consequences in a woman’s offspring. Folate deficiency increases the risk of neural tube defects and Down syndrome, gestational iron deficiency may be associated with cognitive and immune impairment in babies, and even slight exposures to alcohol may have an unsafe impact on embryo development. Additionally, low dose chemical exposures have been found to induce genome instability with enhanced tendency for novel genetic mutation.
With the application of preconception care, women preparing for pregnancy may ease into the necessary dietary changes and lifestyle modifications required to ensure a healthy pregnancy instead of rushing to alter these practices during the early months of gestation, which may only serve to increase their stress and negatively impact the growth and development of the fetus. As an example, common deficiencies from Vitamin D and magnesium to Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) must be corrected to prevent development of defects during gestation. Recognition and health education of these common gestational deficiencies then increase the preparation efforts of women to ensure nutritional adequacy by fortification of various foods and routine gestational supplementation with a vitamin/mineral supplement. Expecting mothers may prepare not only healthy food and the recommended organic diet resources but also the needed financial resources. In this way, advance preparation may decrease the chance of contracting illnesses that may adversely affect the pregnancy journey, including addressing diagnosed conditions with necessary medications or therapy and other interventions.
Overall, preconception care is key to reducing, if not eliminating potential threats of pregnancy and health risks to both mother and child. It also contributes to positive pregnancy outcomes by providing general pregnancy health education for would-be mothers while also implementing an individualized pregnancy care plan to strengthen the mother’s environmental, emotional, and physical experiences, making pregnancy holistically well and safe.
Reference
Genius, S.J. & Genius, R.A. (2016). “Preconception Care: A New Standard of Care within Maternal Health Services.” BioMed Research International, 2016, p.1-30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/6150976