Preconception health

Professor Mary Barker, Professor Tom P. Fleming and Professor Keith Godfrey

A new series of papers Preconception Health published by our team in The Lancet makes the case for both women and men to follow a healthy diet and lifestyle before trying for a baby.

Mothers’ obesity or under-nutrition and similar factors in fathers can adversely affect the eggs, sperm and embryos with enduring consequences, increasing long-term cardio-metabolic and non-communicable disease risk in offspring. Pre-conception care and preparation for pregnancy is the right strategy for health of the nation across generations.

Many men and women of reproductive age, in both high income (HIC) and low-and-middle income countries (LMIC) are not well-prepared for pregnancy in terms of nutrition.

Lifecourse research pin-points investment in the pre-conception period as critical for long-term health across generations. Though we now know that pregnancy planning is more common than was thought, opportunities to invest in health before conception - a key time-point – have been overlooked.

Collectively, The Lancet series points to a new emphasis on preparing for conception as a way of preventing disease and improving public health.

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