Preconception care is care you receive before you get pregnant. It involves taking good care of yourself before you become pregnant by ensuring that you eat healthily and exercise regularly.
Preconception care is not only about the baby, it takes the mother's health into much greater perspective, helping the woman achieve good health before pregnancy. Planning ahead and thinking about your health before pregnancy can make a big difference to the health of your future children. There is substantial research evidence already available showing that a woman’s health before pregnancy and in the early stages of pregnancy can affect the health of her baby, so wider publicity for pre-pregnancy recommendations would be of great benefit.
If you are planning a baby, a good pre pregnancy diet is to be highly recommended.
What is folic acid?
Folic acid is one of the B vitamins needed to make healthy new cells.
Foods high in folic acid include several vegetables such as spinach, lettuces, dried beans and peas, sunflower seeds and certain some fruits and vegetables are rich folic acid sources of foods with folic acid. Some breakfast cereals are also folic acid foods that are fortified. Other sources of folic acid are Vegemite and Marmite.
A well proven pregnancy tip is that folic acid supplementation can reduce the incidence of neural tube defects including spina bifida9101, 9501, 9601. We don't know exactly how folic acid works to prevent birth defects but folic acid is needed to make healthy new cells, like those that make up a baby's brain and spine. Taking folic acid 5mg supplements every day, starting before and during pregnancy, can reduce the risk for these serious birth defects by around 60%. The benefits of folic acid not any include the reduction of birth defects but it also prevents folic acid deficiency anaemia.
Genetic Counselling
Genetic counselling is not primarily "counselling" in the psychological sense. Genetic counselling is the process through which knowledge about the genetic aspects of illnesses is shared by trained professionals with those who are at an increased risk or either having a heritable disorder or of passing it on to their unborn offspring.
Compliance With Preconception Care Advice
To examine the extent to which women planning a
pregnancy comply with recommendations for nutrition and lifestyle, 12 445
non-pregnant women aged 20-34 recruited to the Southampton Women's Survey
through general practices, 238 of whom became pregnant within three months of
being interviewed. Folic acid supplement intake, alcohol consumption, smoking,
diet, and physical activity before pregnancy were assessed. The 238 women who
became pregnant within three months of the interview were only marginally more
likely to comply with recommendations for those planning a pregnancy than those
who did not become pregnant in this period. It was concluded that only a small
proportion of women planning a pregnancy follow the recommendations for
nutrition and lifestyle. Greater publicity for the recommendations is needed,
but as many pregnancies are unplanned, improved nutrition and lifestyles of
women of childbearing age is also required.
Thank you for choosing to visit us.
This is the personal website of David A Viniker MD FRCOG, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at Whipps Cross University Hospital, London - Specialist Interests - Reproductive Medicine including Infertility, PCOS, PMS, Menopause and HRT.
I do hope that you find the answers to your women's health questions in the patient information and medical advice provided. If you still have unanswered questions, please consider entering them into one of our forums and I will try to assist you.
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