Guidelines

Guidelines and Toolkits

An international handbook on preconception health was released in 2020. Preconception Health and Care: A Life Course Approach was edited by Jill Shawe, Eric A. P. Steegers and Sarah Verbiest. This book provides a practical, multidisciplinary approach to support a broad range of health professionals, social workers, public health workers and others tasked with providing health and care to young adults. Click here to preview and order.

CDC Guidance on Zika Virus Preconception Counseling for Women and Men, found HERE.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists released a Committee Opinion on Prepregnancy Counseling in March 2019. Click here to read the guidelines.

The Office of Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently launched a redesigned Think Cultural Health website, http://bit.ly/1K7YRjf.

The American Academy of Family Physicians issued guidelines for standardized, improved preconception care in their 2016 Preconception Care Position Paper. The new evidence-based recommendations call for providers to incorporate preconception care into primary care practices. Click here to read the full paper.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Guidelines for Cervical Cancer Screening (2012) can be found here.

The Interconception Care Project for California, led by the American  Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, District IX and funded by  March of Dimes, California Chapter, has developed an interconception care toolkit.  Its recommendations aim to improve and promote the interconception health by maximizing care provided during the  postpartum visit.  A panel of obstetric and health experts developed  evidence-based postpartum clinical management algorithms and companion  patient education materials based on the 21 most common pregnancy and  delivery complications identified using ICD-9 discharge code data in  California.  Review and download this important guidance here.

ACOG, in collaboration with CDC, developed the Drinking and Reproductive Health: A Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Prevention Tool Kit.  The tool kit is available at no charge to women’s health care providers.  To download, click here.

The You Decide: Making Informed Health Choices about Hormonal Contraception Tool Kit is designed to help health care providers better understand and speak to the risks and benefits of hormonal contraception.   This tool kit is part of a comprehensive educational program created by Planned Parenthood® Federation of America, Inc. and the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals.  The kit, which can be downloaded at no cost from here.

The Reproductive Health Access Project provides information on the Medical Eligibility for Initiating Contraception: Absolute and Relative Contraindications.  Click here to access chart.

Recommendations for the Routine Care of All Women of Reproductive Age

Clinical Care Algorithm for Women of Childbearing Age (Wisconsin Association Perinatal Care) – the download is free and easy to access.

Smiles for Life: Women’s Oral Health Curriculum – click here

The WHO’s Preconception Care to Reduce Maternal and Childhood Mortality and Morbidity report reflects the proceedings from a meeting to develop global consensus on preconception care to reduce maternal and childhood mortality and morbidity. It further provides packages of interventions in thirteen domains – listing the health problems, problem behaviors and risk factors that contribute to maternal and childhood mortality and morbidity, evidence-based interventions to address them, and mechanisms of delivering them. Click here to access this report. The policy brief, Preconception Care: Maximizing the Gains for Maternal and Child Health, complementing this report can also be found here.

The Preconception Health and Health Care Environmental Scan: Report on Clinical Screening Tools and Interventions was developed in response to a request for an environmental scan that emerged from the Clinical Work Group, calling for collection, review, and compilation of promising tools with an existing evidence base, including both screening instruments and brief interventions. For access, click here.