Title: Interconceptional Care and Counseling
Author:
Section/SPIG: Maternal and Child Health
Issue Date:
Recent data from Pregnancy Associated Mortality Reviews, Perinatal Periods of Risks analyses, and Fetal Infant Mortality Review teams have highlighted the strong association between a mother's health both before and during pregnancy and birth outcomes. Data has also shown that 50 percent of all pregnancies among adult women are unplanned. Based on these factors, Florida identified the pre/interconceptional period as one untapped area of opportunity to positively influence birth outcomes in Florida. In the fall of 2004, the Department of Health and Healthy Start Coalitions initiated a campaign to address infant mortality and improve pregnancy outcomes through education and counseling aimed at improving a women’s health status before she becomes pregnant.
Florida’s Healthy Start Interconceptional Care and Counseling component was developed in collaboration with the Florida Department of Health, Healthy Start Coalitions, and Healthy Start providers, and subsequently integrated into existing Healthy Start programs without additional funding. Healthy Start Programs are able to develop their own curriculum, but individual Interconceptional Care curricula must be approved by the local coalition and adhere to the minimum standards outlined in the Healthy Start Standards and Guidelines. Providers, including nurses, social workers, health educators, and paraprofessionals in Healthy Start programs throughout the state, are being trained to provide interconceptional education in a culturally sensitive manner that is applicable to the participant and their assessed risk factors. Technical assistance guidelines were also developed for use in Florida’s county health departments as a guide for programs like Family Planning and prenatal care clinics to provide pre/interconceptional care to women of childbearing age. Educational components of both these initiatives include access to health care; management of maternal infections and chronic health conditions; weight, physical activity and nutritional counseling; appropriate baby spacing; substance abuse and smoking; mental health issues; and environmental risk factors.
For more information, contact Terrye Bradley, MSW, Chief, Bureau of Family and Community Health, Florida Department of Health, <Terrye_Bradley@doh.state.fl.us>.