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Health Check!

Preventive Medicine Before You Conceive

By Kelly Burgess

olved with pre-pregnancy medicine in 1985, this idea has been embraced by everyone who provides care for women," he says. "The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) now has guidelines, as does the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). In the last 20 years or so we've finally begun to understand the importance of planning before opportunities are lost."

While Dr. Sussman applauds the campaign to make women aware of risks that affect every woman, such as the link between neural tube defects and folic acid, his primary interest in encouraging pre-pregnancy visits is so pre-pregnancy care can be individualized for each woman.

For example, a woman may not realize that based upon her family history her child could be at risk for a particular birth defect. A woman might also be found to be at high risk for a tubal pregnancy. Dr. Sussman argues that if they were followed closely through the process of conception, the risk to the mother's future fertility could be minimized. There are also more serious conditions, such as when a woman has diabetes, that can be monitored with a view toward trying to conceive.

It's not about trying to dissuade anyone from getting pregnant, either. It's merely about giving them information to make informed choices about their lives and their pregnancies.

"Although it's becoming more obvious that you can reduce the chances of bad things happening if you start getting medical care before your pregnancy, the traditional model still prevails of going to your doctor after you've missed a couple of periods," says Dr. Sussman. "By that time, you're well into your first trimester. Sometimes problems that surface at this time are cast in stone."

Dr Sussman gives as an example of a woman who may discover at her first checkup that she has cervical cancer, which happened in Griffen's case. If she had seen her doctor prior to her pregnancy, there's a strong possibility she could have been treated, had a successful pregnancy and still retained her fertility.

Want to see more?

• Six Months to Conception: A Practical Five-Step Plan Toward Pregnancy
• Preconception Visits: Working With Your Doctor
• Ready, Set, Conceive! Preconception Planning for a Healthy Pregnancy
• Talk about it!