The focus of preconception care is to guide women toward achieving optimal reproductive health before they become pregnant. Attaining a state of best preconception health is the surest way toward a safe healthy pregnancy with a good outcome. Preconception care looks at a woman's environment and any possible risk factors that might affect a pregnancy, or a woman's overall fertility.

The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) has recommended that all women of an age to bear children should be in good childbearing health. It matters not if you've been pregnant before, have already had a baby, or plan never to become pregnant—during your childbearing years, you should be taking care of your reproductive health.

Informed Decisions

During an appointment with a preconception health care provider, you will be assessed for personal habits and lifestyle behaviors that may be harmful to a future fetus or to your future fertility. Such issues as prescription medication will be addressed: is there a substitute medication that is safer for a woman's reproductive health? Your health care provider can examine such issues and help you make informed decisions about your own preconception health.

The hope is that by counseling women about the dangers of smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol, for instance, any fetus that is produced will have the safest possible environment for healthy growth and development. Preconception counseling can help teach women about taking folic acid in advance of pregnancy to prevent neural tube defects in their babies during the first few weeks after conception. A woman will also learn about how to eliminate risks in the workplace and at home. This is preemptive care at its finest and is meant to ensure that all the right measures are in place before conception takes place, when such measures may already be too late.

Genetic Risks

Women can also learn about how to avoid the dangers of substance abuse and what sub...