Abstract
Preconception counselling is still in its infancy in developing countries. Many barriers to its establishment have been noted to include poor infrastructure and low level of motivation on the part of the healthcare provider, as well as poor knowledge of the unique role of pre-pregnancy management in the overall outcome of maternity care. Prenatal care, though better established than preconception counselling, is yet to meet the expected mandate of health education, improved medical management, complication readiness, and informed birth preparedness. This chapter is instructive to today’s practitioner in Africa. It addressed the unique place of incorporating preconception counselling into existing points of contact while promoting a shared prenatal care program organized in a manner that allows task shifting and referral across levels of competence. It also described the critical role of midwives and obstetricians in the design and implementation of a template for a well-coordinated and properly conducted comprehensive maternity care that will guarantee the much-needed improvements in maternal and perinatal mortality in Africa and the rest of the developing world. Furthermore, the chapter highlighted ways that preconception counselling and prenatal care can ensure healthy women become healthy mothers and give birth to healthy babies.
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Agholor, K.N., Enaruna, N.O. (2021). Preconception Counselling and Prenatal Care. In: Okonofua, F., Balogun, J.A., Odunsi, K., Chilaka, V.N. (eds) Contemporary Obstetrics and Gynecology for Developing Countries . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75385-6_8
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