Before pregnancy
Health, supplements and checks before a pregnancy starts.
Care topics 1
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Preconception care means seeing a health care provider while planning a pregnancy, before it begins. A health care provider can help find and manage problems that could affect a later pregnancy, such...
Fronts 2
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Pages about how care is organised: visit schedules, guidelines, campaigns, networks and the checks after leaving hospital.
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Pages about steps taken before or during pregnancy to lower the chance of a problem: supplements, food, activity and stopping smoking.
Interventions 1
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Folic acid is a B vitamin. Taking it every day before and in early pregnancy lowers the chance that a baby is born with a neural tube defect, a serious birth defect of the brain or spine. US guidance...
Guidelines 1
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A 2023 statement from the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) that reaffirms its advice that everyone planning a pregnancy, or who could become pregnant, should take a daily folic acid...
Studies 1
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A large international trial that tested whether folic acid, taken around the time of conception, prevents neural tube defects in women who had already had an affected pregnancy. Women were given at...
Reading paths 1
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A suggested order for reading about planning a pregnancy and the first part of routine care. It starts with preconception care and folic acid, moves to the first antenatal visits and common checks...