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Bridget M. Kuehn

JAMA. 2006;295:2591-2592.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

By the time most pregnant women have their first prenatal care visit, fetal development has already progressed beyond a critical period during which a lack of folic acid or certain exposures may have already compromised the well-being of the mother and fetus. To close this gap in care and address preventable risk factors, experts are urging physicians to offer couples prenatal care even before conception has even occurred.

To address this issue, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in Atlanta, recently published a set of recommendations on preconception care drawn from a review of the literature and a national summit on the issue held in June 2005 (Johnson K et al. MMWR Recomm Rep. 2006;55:1-23).

Implementing better preconception care will require a concerted effort by physicians and health care workers in all specialties, according to the recommendations. The first and foremost recommendation was that clinicians . . . [Full Text of this Article]

PRECONCEPTION RISKS