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Reading path: planning a pregnancy

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, and ends with gestational diabetes. It is a reading order, not medical advice and not a care plan.

  • Reading path
  • In this atlas

Overview

Technical summary

An editorial sequence of 13 steps over pages on preconception and routine pregnancy care. Each step restates in one line what the linked page covers; the linked pages carry the sources and populations. It links only to records that exist and branches nowhere. It continues into the existing reading path for expectant parents.

Who this is for

People who are thinking about a pregnancy or are in the first weeks of one, and the families and clinicians who want to read about it in order.

Reading order

  1. Preconception care

    Before pregnancy. What a provider can help check and change before conceiving: long-term conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure, folic acid, vaccines, smoking, alcohol and weight.

  2. Folic acid supplementation before and in early pregnancy

    Before and in early pregnancy. A daily folic acid supplement lowers the chance of a neural tube defect in the baby; US guidance covers anyone who could become pregnant.

  3. Neural tube defects (fetus)

    The condition that folic acid helps prevent: birth defects of the brain or spine that begin in the first month of pregnancy.

  4. Help to stop smoking in pregnancy

    Stopping smoking before or during pregnancy: what US guidance advises and what is still unclear about medicines.

  5. Alcohol exposure in pregnancy (fetus)

    Why health agencies advise no alcohol in pregnancy: no amount of alcohol has been shown to be safe.

  6. Antenatal (prenatal) care

    Routine antenatal visits: what they are for and the global model of at least eight contacts.

  7. Screening for infections in pregnancy (syphilis, hepatitis B, bacteriuria)

    Early blood and urine tests for syphilis, hepatitis B and bacteria in the urine.

  8. Iron supplementation and iron screening in pregnancy

    Iron and pregnancy: what the US task force could and could not conclude in 2024.

  9. Physical activity in pregnancy

    Staying active in pregnancy: what MedlinePlus and a Canadian guideline say.

  10. Weight gain in pregnancy above or below the recommended range

    Weight gain in pregnancy: what a large review found for babies when gain is below or above the range.

  11. Gestational diabetes

    Gestational diabetes: what it is and why it is looked for around 24 to 28 weeks.

  12. Glucose tests for gestational diabetes (one-step and two-step)

    The glucose tests, one-step and two-step, and why they label different numbers of women.

  13. Treatment of gestational diabetes (diet, glucose monitoring, insulin or metformin)

    Treatment of gestational diabetes and what the trials found.

Record details

Record id
maternal:reading-path-planning-a-pregnancy
Content hash
104b7525ec563e1b89f7ac39c90675495cc2fa146fc7ddc721e50cb6c09a218d