ISSUES IN REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH VOL. 3

Preconception care is widely recognized as a critical component of maternal and child health promotion globally. The idea of preconception care is to target the existing risks before pregnancy, whereby resources may be used to improve reproductive health and optimize knowledge before conceiving. The preconception period provides an opportunity to intervene earlier to optimize the health of potential mothers (and fathers) and to prevent harmful exposures from affecting the developing fetus. Preconception health care is a set of pregnancy interventions to reduce the influence of biomedical, behavioural and social risks of mothers¿ health, and unborn child¿s health (Fransen, Hopman, Murugesu, Rosman & Smith, 2018). It can improve maternal and neonatal outcome by identifying, modifying bad habits and behaviors before conception and decreasing unintended pregnancies (Simone, et al. 2018).