National Activities


Below you will find key information about the development and activities of the National Preconception Health Campaign. To view a current overview presentation of this campaign click here.


While preconception health messages such as folic acid have been promoted in the US for many years, significant national efforts to advance the broader issue of preconception health and health care began in 2004 with a CDC Internal Workgroup. The First National Summit on Preconception health was held in June 2005 at which time the National Select Panel also met for the first time. The Select Panel includes representations from 35 national and regional organizations and expertise from a range of backgrounds and sectors. This panel developed recommendations to guide preconception health work nationally. Recommendations for Preconception Health and Health Care were released in April 2006. They are listed below:



  • Individual Responsibility Across the Lifespan. Each woman, man, and couple should be encouraged to have a reproductive life plan


  • Consumer Awareness. Increase public awareness of the importance of preconception health behaviors and preconception care services by using information and tools appropriate across various ages; literacy, including health literacy; and cultural/linguistic contexts.


  • Preventive Visits. As a part of primary care visits, provide risk assessment and educational and health promotion counseling to all women of childbearing age to reduce reproductive risks and improve pregnancy outcomes.


  • Interventions for Identified Risks. Increase the proportion of women who receive interventions as follow-up to preconception risk screening, focusing on high priority interventions (i.e., those with evidence of effectiveness and greatest potential impact).


  • Interconception Care. Use the interconception period to provide additional intensive interventions to women who have had a previous pregnancy that ended in an adverse outcome (i.e., infant death, fetal loss, birth defects, low birth weight, or preterm birth).


  • Prepregnancy Checkup. Offer, as a component of maternity care, one pre pregnancy visit for couples and persons planning a pregnancy.


  • Health Insurance Coverage for Women with Low Incomes. Increase public and private health insurance coverage for women with low incomes to improve access to preventive women’s health and preconception and interconception care.


  • Public Health Programs and Strategies. Integrate components of preconception health into existing local public health and related programs, including emphasis on interconception interventions for women with previous adverse outcomes.


  • Research. Increase the evidence base and promote the use of the evidence to improve preconception health.


  • Monitoring Improvements. Maximize public health surveillance and related research mechanisms to monitor preconception health.

For a pdf version of the CDC recommendations, click here


For the MMWR report on the CDC recommendations, click here.


Following these recommendations, national workgroups were formed to guide implementation. These workgroups are Clinical, Consumer, Public Health and Policy and Finance. These groups continue to meet. Some of the results of their work are described below.


A second National Summit on Preconception Health was held in California in October 2007. To review the presentations from that summit click here.


A research meeting on the topic of preconception health was sponsored by the National Institute of Child Health and Development in March 2008.


A third National Summit on Preconception Health took place on June 12-14, 2011 in Tampa, Florida – click here to view the presentations.


Work Group Products & Activities


Three journals have published supplemental issues on preconception health. The first addresses preconception health broadly (MCH Journal). The second highlights clinical recommendations (AJOG), and the third focuses on preconception health related policy (WHI). These supplemental issues reflect considerable work and research on the part of the clinical and policy workgroups.



To access all of the articles in these issues free of charge click here.  


The public health work group focused first on developing preconception health indicators to help states assess and measure their work. These indicators were discussed in the Know Your Numbers section of this site. They have also developed a practice collaborative in partnership with CityMatch. To learn more go to http://www.citymatch.org/


A new interconception care learning collaborative project was launched in partnership with the National Healthy Start Association and their 99 healthy start sites across the country. For more details about this work click on case management in this section.


The consumer workgroup has focused on research around preconception health message bundling as well as cataloguing educational materials and products for men and women.  They have also supported work on the topic of eliminating disparities in interconception care. The group has been partnering with groups such as AMCHP, NACCHO and CDC to discuss the development of a clearinghouse for these materials. The group is currently focused on seeking out evidence based practices and approaches in reaching a diverse population with preconception health messages.


The Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP) has developed a program called Innovation Stations which highlights best, emerging and promising practices in maternal and child health. To learn more about the programs it has selected OR to submit your own program for review click here.