Resources for Professionals

Background on Preconception Health

 This website is dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of women of reproductive age—before, between and beyond pregnancy—in order to ensure the health of future generations. Risk factors for adverse pregnancy outcomes have the greatest effect prior to conception or early in pregnancy, before most women know that they are pregnant. Since nearly half of all pregnancies in California are unintended, preconception care should be a consideration for all women of childbearing age.

As members of the Preconception Health Council of California, we believe that preconception care services must be fully integrated into the delivery of health care to all women of reproductive age. We have developed this website to help you, the provider, make this a reality. Your role—as clinician, health educator or community health worker—is critical!  Studies have consistently shown that advice provided by a health care provider, whether about folic acid or smoking cessation, has a more powerful effect on the consumer than radio or TV ads or even advice from friends. So, welcome to Every Woman California! No matter if you are a longtime advocate of preconception health promotion or a recent convert, we hope this website will be useful for you.

Organization of Every Woman California

This website is designed to provide both consumer-friendly information and resources for health professionals. The components of preconception health are organized into three categories- healthy body, healthy mind, and healthy environment- within the framework of a reproductive life plan. From each section, there are links to printable low-literacy fact sheets. All of these fact sheets can also be found here.    

Resources

Here you will find additional resources for the latest information about preconception health, clinical practice guidelines, and additional information on specific preconception health topics. 

• Of note is the CDC Recommendations to Improve Preconception Health and Health Care—April 2006
  • Summary of CDC Recommendations
• Click on a sub-category below for more resources on that topic.