A New Focus on Preconception Healthcare and the Life Course Theory of Health

Cristina Lammers

Abstract

Preconception healthcare (PCHC) is a set of prevention and health promotion interventions to reduce reproductiveaged women’s health risks before conception and improve birth outcomes. This timelier intervention is underutilized in the United States (U.S.). The current health framework integrates the Fetal Origin of Adult Disease (FOAD) theory, the Developmental Origin of Health and Disease (DOHaD) and the Life Course Theory of health (LCT). This continuous integrative health framework emphasizes the important role of PCHC on birth outcomes and on reducing the burden of adult chronic diseases in the population