Healthy babies don't just happen. Having them involves planning, according to a new national coalition of physicians, fertility specialists, disability and birth-defect specialists and others.
"We'd like to educate women to talk to their physicians and nurse practitioners early, to have a pre-conception visit," said Dr. Mary Jane Minkin, a founding member of the new Conception Council, and a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Yale University School of Medicine.
The healthier a woman is before conception, the better the chance of having a healthy baby, said Stephen McDonald, director of program services for the March of Dimes Utah chapter. "A health-care provider can identify and often treat health conditions that can pose a risk in pregnancy, such as high blood pressure, diabetes or infections, then give information at the same time on lifestyle factors and things someone might be doing that could affect pregnancy, such as smoking, drinking or all kinds of occupational exposures.
"Prenatal care has really been the mainstream intervention since the 1980s, and it has had some impact in improving maternal and infant health. But some problems have continued or worsened."
McDonald rattled off numbers: 12 percent of babies nationwide are born prematurely, as are 10 percent in Utah; 8 percent nationally have low birth weight, as do 6 percent in Utah. Nationally, 11 percent of pregnant women smoke, and 10 percent drink alcoholic beverages.
Of women who do get pregnant, nearly 70 percent don't take folic acid, 31 percent are obese and 3 percent take prescription or over-the-counter drugs known to cause birth defects. Another 4 percent have a pre-existing medical condition like diabetes that can impact a pregnancy.
If prenatal care alone hasn't solved all the problems, it's time to look at other things, and "pre-conception health is another approach that can really help," McDonald said.
An online survey of women of reproductive age found "a lot really don't know a lot about getting pregnant and having healthy babies," Minkin said. Even many of her own, best-educated patients lack basic knowledge about their bodies, she added.
Helping women have healthy babies is the focus of the March of Dimes, and it's been educating women for years. The group, which is also a founding member of the council, took the discovery about 15 years ago that folic acid reduces the risk of having babies with neural tube defects and ran with it, launching a campaign to get women of child-bearing age to consume folic acid regularly.
The March of Dimes was instrumental in getting cereal companies to add folic acid and has pushed the idea of taking vitamins, even if you're not trying to have a baby, because half of pregnancies are not planned.
"We want women on a simple multivitamin because a simple measure like that can reduce birth defects," Minkin said.
The Conception Council is the brainchild of Church and Dwight Co., which makes First Response ovulation tests to help women who are having trouble becoming pregnant, and early pregnancy tests. Other founding members include RESOLVE, a national infertility association.
The council is taking its message around the country, holding meetings to set an agenda and talk about what needs done, Minkin said. "We will have a curriculum out, hopefully in the next few months. We're launching a media tour to get the word out. And we're providing information to magazines and others who have a strong female audience."
While the council aims to prevent habits or activities that could interfere with a healthy pregnancy, such as smoking or drinking, the group also says implementing changes that reduce risk can help throughout a pregnancy. "It's never too late to intervene, and it's better late than never," said Minkin. "It's best to intervene early, but at any point, there's some benefit to modifying behavior."
It's also important to know you're pregnant as soon as you can, the council said, because a positive pregnancy test is a powerful motivator to make healthy improvements. The council provides information that may stop activities that could harm the fetus, Minkin said.
The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, showed that about half of all respondents who have been pregnant said they didn't know what to expect during the pregnancy. And 61 percent of respondents said their reproductive-health education had been focused on how to prevent pregnancy, rather than pregnancy planning.
More information is available online at marchofdimes.com, firstresponse.com or resolve.org. Information is available in Spanish at nacersano.org.
E-mail: lois@desnews.com