Preconception
and Pregnancy
Knowledge Path
April 2008
Introduction
This knowledge path about preconception
and pregnancy has been compiled by the Maternal
and Child Health Library at
Georgetown University. It offers a selection of current,
high-quality resources that analyze perinatal health
statistics, describe effective prenatal care programs,
and report on research aimed at improving access
to and quality of prenatal care and improving perinatal
health outcomes. A separate section lists consumer
health resources. The final part of the knowledge
path presents resources on specific aspects of preconception
and pregnancy: childbirth, depression, drug and alcohol
use, environmental concerns, fertility and infertility,
nutrition, oral health, and tobacco use. This knowledge
path will be updated periodically.
Related topics: Please see our knowledge paths
about adolescent
pregnancy prevention, infant
mortality, locating
community-based services to support children and
families, and postpartum
depression.
Resources for
Professionals
Web Sites:
A-Z
- Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ):
Women's Health.
Provides clinical information about maternal
health and pregnancy.
Presents data from the Healthcare
Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), National
Guideline Clearinghouse,
and National
Quality Measures Clearinghouse™
(NQMC).
AHRQ is the health services research
arm of the Department
of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
Recent publications include
Health
care expenditures
for uncomplicated
pregnancies.
(2007).
Screening
for bacterial vaginosis in pregnancy. (2008).
Screening
for Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection,
rev. ed. (2007).
- American
College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
(ACOG). Contains
brochures, booklets, policy statements, and
other materials about preconception and pregnancy
for health professionals. Topics include health
care for underserved women, perinatal HIV,
smoking cessation, and women with disabilities.
Also presents an online
directory of physicians.
Note: Many resources on the site are accessible
to members only.
- Association
of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP):
Women's and Perinatal Health.
Offers information and resources, including
slide presentations, fact sheets, and training
programs to help states build their capacity
to provide essential women's health services.
Project areas include health disparities; healthy
weight; infant mortality; perinatal HIV prevention;
reducing maternal illness, injury, and death;
tobacco use prevention and cessation; and other
emerging issues. Recent publications include
HIV
testing in pregnant women.
(2006).
Perinatal
HIV action learning lab: Summary report.
(2006).
Preconception
health and health care.
(2007).
Promoting
healthy weight among women of reproductive
age. (2006).
- Association
of Women's Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal
Nurses (AWHONN).
Offers clinical practice information and continuing-education
resources about preconception, pregnancy, labor
and delivery management, and postpartum care.
- Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Contains information about preconception and
pregnancy. Resources and initiatives include
CDC's
Division of Reproductive
Health.
Contains links to reports,
data, and other resources
about pregnancy and prenatal
care, including maternal
morbidity and mortality;
smoking; alcohol use;
folic acid consumption;
violence; workplace hazards;
and racial and ethnic
disparities. Recent resources
include
CDC's
Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Reports (MMWR).
Presents data based on weekly reports to CDC
by state health departments. Also offers online continuing-education
courses for health
professionals that coincide with several preconception
and pregnancy-related guidelines published
in MMWR. Recent reports about preconception
and pregnancy include
CDC's National
Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).
Provides data about preconception and pregnancy,
including
CDC's National
Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities
(NCBDDD). Offers
scientific publications and tools, guidelines,
educational materials, an electronic
discussion group,
and information about research projects and
public health campaigns to identify the causes
of birth defects. Preconception and pregnancy-related
topics include folic acid consumption, preventing
alcohol-exposed pregnancies, medication use
during pregnancy, and using family history
information in obstetrics and pediatrics.
Other resources and initiatives
about preconception and pregnancy from CDC:
Critical
needs in caring for pregnant women during times
of disaster for non-obstetric health care providers.
(2007).
Guidelines
for vaccinating pregnant women, rev. ed.
(2007).
Guide
to Community Preventive Services.
Contains information about a systematic review
of studies to develop recommendations for reducing
the number of pregnancies affected by neural
tube defects.
One
Test, Two Lives.
Provides resources for health professionals
and materials for their patients to help encourage
universal voluntary prenatal testing for HIV.
Also see CDC's Pregnancy
Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), Pregnancy
Surveillance System (PNSS),
and VitalStats.
- Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Contains program information, eligibility criteria,
publications, forms, and data about Medicaid,
which offers coverage for eligible pregnant
women. CMS administers Medicare, Medicaid,
and the State Children's Health Insurance Program
(SCHIP).
- CityMatCH.
Contains tools and resources for implementing the
Perinatal Periods of Risk (PPOR) approach for mobilizing
urban communities to reduce feto-infant mortality
in U.S. cities. Also presents publications about
perinatal HIV prevention in urban communities.
- Healthy
People 2010.
Offers information about this national health-promotion
and disease-prevention initiative. It is coordinated
by the Office
of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
(ODPHP). Healthy
People contains
467 objectives, and 31 focus on pregnancy.
To identify them, search the
objectives by selecting pregnancy under
Topic. Click on Submit. Healthy
People provides
background information on the initiative; the
complete text, Healthy
People 2010: Understanding and improving health,
2nd ed. (2000)
and Healthy
People 2010 Midcourse Review (2006);
a list of the Healthy
People partners
and related sites; and other Healthy
People publications.
Also see Data2010 for
data about the Healthy
People 2010 pregnancy
objectives. See too the HP2010
Information Access Project for
access to published literature related to the Healthy
People 2010 objectives
about pregnancy and family planning.
- Kaiser
Family Foundation (KFF): Women's Health Policy.
Provides fact sheets, issue briefs, meeting
materials, data,
and news for
policymakers, journalists, advocates, and public
health professionals about women's reproductive
health and access to care, including pregnancy-related
care. KFF is an independent philanthropy focusing
on national health care issues. Recent publications
include
Maternity
care and consumer-driven
health plans.
(2007).
Medicaid's
role for women.
(2007).
- March
of Dimes (MOD).
Offers perinatal
statistics, continuing-education
modules, and medical reference information
on topics that include preconception, pregnancy,
prenatal screening, and genetics. Recent publications
include
Costs
of maternity and infant
care.
(2007).
Diabetes
in pregnancy. (2006).
Healthcare
costs of having a baby.
(2007).
HIV
and AIDS in pregnancy.
(2006).
- Maternal
and Child Health Bureau (MCHB).
Describes MCHB's projects and initiatives on
behalf of America's women, infants, children,
adolescents, and their families. Programs include
the Title V block grant to states (see the Title
V Information System for
state and federal budget and expenditure data
on prenatal care and information about states'
efforts to improve pregnancy outcomes). MCHB
has a fact
sheet about prenatal
care in English and Spanish that includes a
hotline number to help pregnant women find
prenatal care services in their communities.
The Maternal
and Child Health Library and
the Discretionary Grant Information
System (DGIS) offer additional information
about the initiatives and programs supported
by MCHB that pertain to prenatal care. MCHB
is part of the Health
Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).
Another recent resource is
Women's
health USA.
(2007). This data book
presents key facts and
figures about U.S. women.
It includes information
about population characteristics,
health status, and health
services utilization.
Topics include maternal
health.
- National
Birth Defects Prevention Network (NBDPN).
Presents a collection
of materials to
assist state program administrators and health
professionals in promoting birth defects prevention.
Each year, NBDPN selects a different theme
to highlight, and the 2008 theme is preventing
infections in pregnancy.
Preconceptional health, fetal alcohol spectrum
disorders, cardiac defects, neural tube defects,
and cleft lip and cleft palate are themes for
earlier years for which there are materials.
- National
Healthy Start Association (NHSA).
Describes the Healthy Start program and provides
general information about infant mortality,
low-birthweight infants, and racial disparities
in perinatal outcomes. Includes a directory
of Healthy Start programs nationwide and a newsletter.
Funded by the Maternal
and Child Health Bureau (MCHB),
Healthy Start provides community-based, culturally
competent, family-centered, comprehensive perinatal
health services to women, infants, and their
families in communities with very high rates
of infant mortality. See the Discretionary
Grant Information System (DGIS) for
information about Healthy Start grantees. Also
see the Maternal and Child Health Library's Healthy
Start Collection Database for
a catalog of materials developed by Healthy
Start programs.
- National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development
(NICHD): Women's Health Research.
Contains research and grant information, publications,
and other resources on topics that include
preconception and prenatal care, miscarriage
and stillbirth, preterm labor and premature
birth, disorders of pregnancy, drug safety
in pregnant women, and reproductive health
among women with physical disabilities. NICHD
is part of the National
Institutes of Health (NIH).
Recent publications include
State-of-the-Science
Conference on cesarean
delivery on maternal
request.
(2006). A news release,
Webcast, program and
abstract booklet, and
literature review accompany
the consensus statement.
- National
Perinatal Association (NPA).
Offers a collection of position papers about
access to perinatal care, breastfeeding, domestic
violence, medical liability reform, substance
abuse in pregnancy, and transcultural perinatal
care. Also offers information about NPA's resource
guide and training program about transcultural
perinatal care.
- National
Sudden Infant Death Resource Center (NSIDRC).
Includes resources about stillbirth and miscarriage
for health professionals, policymakers, and
families. NSIDRC and the Maternal
and Child Health (MCH) Library are
co-located at Georgetown University's National
Center for Education in Maternal and Child
Health and are supported with funding from
the Maternal
and Child Health Bureau (MCHB).
- UNC
Center for Maternal and Infant Health.
Presents preconception and pregnancy research
and program information, algorithms for the
management of high-risk pregnancies, a family
history questionnaire, and information about
cystic fibrosis, maternal age and pregnancy,
prenatal screening, and prenatal diagnosis.
Offers patient-education fact sheets in English
and Spanish on pregnancy topics, genetics,
and serious pregnancy and fetal conditions.
The Center is part of the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.
Reports include
Looking
back, moving forward: North Carolina's path to
healthier women and babies. (2007). Meeting
materials and an executive summary accompany
the report.
- World
Health Organization (WHO): Partnership for
Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health.
Offers program information and resources in
English and five other languages about pregnancy,
childbirth, maternal mortality, and infant
and child mortality worldwide. Fact sheets,
press materials, an advocacy kit, presentations,
and reports are among the resources presented.
Additional
Electronic Publications
- Association
of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO).
2006. Bringing
home better birth outcomes.
Washington, DC: Association of State and Territorial
Health Officials. This issue brief examines home
visiting as a strategy employed by state health
agencies to deliver public health interventions
aimed at improving birth outcomes. Topics include
an overview of home-visiting programs; a discussion
of goals, target populations, common service
components, outcomes, and financing of state-level
programs; examples of programs from Georgia,
Maine, Montana, Oklahoma, and Puerto Rico; and
home-visiting resources.
- Association
of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO).
2006. Preconception
care fact sheet. Washington,
DC: Association of State and Territorial Health
Officials. This issue brief addresses the need
to promote women's health before conception and
presents the many opportunities that exist for
states to improve women's and children's health.
The fact sheet provides examples of preconception
interventions and strategies states may consider
to reduce infant and maternal mortality and morbidity
and improve women's health. A list of resources
is also provided.
- Association
of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), National
Association of County and City Health Officials
(NACCHO). 2006. Preconception
care efforts at the state and local level.
Washington, DC: Association of State and Territorial
Health Officials, National Association of County
and City Health Officials. This issue brief provides
general information on preconception and interconception
care and examples of federal, state, and local
initiatives promoting preconception care and
interconception care. The brief is intended to
inform state and local health officials and health
department staff about preconception care and
its role in promoting optimal health for women
and infants.
- Behrman RE, Butler AS, eds. 2007. Preterm
birth causes, consequences, and prevention.
Washington, DC: National
Academies Press. This
report notes troubling disparities in preterm
birth rates among different racial and ethnic
groups. The report recommends a multidisciplinary
research agenda aimed at improving (1) the ability
to predict whether a woman is at risk for preterm
labor, (2) the ability to prevent preterm labor,
and (3) the understanding of the health and developmental
problems to which preterm infants are vulnerable.
- Campbell KP, ed. 2007. Investing
in maternal and child health: An employer's toolkit.
Washington, DC: National
Business Group on Health.
This toolkit provides employers with information
to design health-promoting and cost-effective
medical benefits for children, adolescents, and
pregnant women.
- Guyer B, Ma S, Grason H, Frick
K, Perry D, Wigton A, McIntosh J. 2008. Investments
to promote children's health: A systematic literature
review and economic analysis of interventions in
the preschool period.
Washington, DC: Partnership
for America's Economic Success.
This report examines the short- and long-term impacts
of health-promotion and disease-prevention interventions
on selected health problems in infants and young
children from birth to age 5. The report reviews
the patterns and monetary burden of poor child
health, the cost implications of preventing and
treating child health problems, and cost-benefit
analyses related to the interventions. Summaries
of studies of interventions during pregnancy that
report child health and economic outcomes are included.
Information on cost-benefit analyses for interventions
on tobacco use, obesity, unintentional injury,
and mental health problems is provided. Also see
the research brief, Early
childhood health problems and prevention strategies:
Costs and benefits (2008).
- Isaacs JB. 2007. Cost-effective
investments in children.
Washington, DC: Brookings
Institution. This
paper identifies four areas of investment in
children where there is sufficient evidence of
positive outcomes and sound benefit-cost ratios
to merit expanded federal funding. Target areas
are early-childhood-education programs, home-visiting
programs to promote sound prenatal care and the
healthy development of infants and young children,
school reform, and programs that reduce the incidence
of adolescent pregnancy.
- Ku L. 2007. Reducing
disparities in health coverage for legal immigrant
children and pregnant women, rev. ed.
Washington, DC: Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP).
This fact sheet provides information about reducing
disparities in health coverage for legal immigrant
children and pregnant women. The fact sheet examines
the current health coverage of legal immigrants
and opportunities to restore equity to legal
immigrant children and pregnant women.
- Moiduddin E, Massey D. 2006. Segregation,
the concentration of poverty, and birth weight.
Princeton, NJ: Center
for Research on Child Wellbeing.
This paper examines the relationship between
neighborhood conditions experienced by pregnant
women of various racial and ethnic groups and
the weights of the infants they ultimately deliver,
controlling for individual and family characteristics.
- Thomson
Healthcare. 2007. Healthcare
costs of having a baby.
Santa Barbara, CA: Thomson Healthcare. This report
quantifies the overall costs of health care services
for having a baby, including all prenatal care
services, delivery-related services, and postpartum
services for the mother.
Databases
The databases listed below are excellent
tools for identifying data,
additional literature
and research, and programs about
preconception and pregnancy. Many of the entries
below contain tips on how to use the databases efficiently.
Please note that databases vary in how terms should
be entered; for example, some require quotation marks
and others don't. Enter search phrases as shown in
bold below.
- Data
- Child
Trends DataBank.
Reports on national trends and research on
over 80 key indicators of child and adolescent
well-being and offers information about the
types of programs and interventions that may
influence particular outcomes. Child Trends
is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization
providing research and data to inform decision-making
that affects children and adolescents. Recent
analyses about pregnancy and prenatal care
include
Conceptualizing
a "strong start": Antecedents
of positive child outcomes
at birth and into early
childhood.
(2007).
Men's
pregnancy intentions and prenatal behaviors:
What they mean for fathers' involvement with
their children.
(2007).
- Data2010:
The Healthy People 2010 Database.
Contains the most recent monitoring data for
tracking Healthy
People 2010. To
obtain data on the topic, click on the field,
Data by Focus Area. Under the field, Select
a Focus Area, choose 16 - Maternal, Infant,
and Child Health from the pop-up menu. Next,
click on the button for Include Related Objectives
From Other Focus Areas in the Table. Click
on the Submit button. Scan the report to identify
data about the many objectives related to preconception
and pregnancy. This data set is provided by
the National
Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) via CDC
Wonder.
- Discretionary
Grant Information System (DGIS). Contains
financial, national performance measure, and
abstract data collected annually from more
than 900 grants issued by the Maternal
and Child Health Bureau (MCHB),
including data from grants to improve pregnancy
outcomes.
- Healthcare
Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP): HCUPnet.
Provides access to health statistics and information
on hospital inpatient and emergency department
utilization at the national, regional, and
state levels. To identify data about hospital
use related to pregnancy and childbirth, select
National Statistics on All Stays or State Statistics
on All Stays. Select Researcher, medical professional.
Under type of query, select Statistics on specific
diagnoses or procedures. Select a year (e.g.,
2005). Select Diagnoses grouped by Clinical
Classifications Software (CCS). Select Principal
diagnosis. Under the field, Browse all CCS
categories, scroll to 11 Complications of Pregnancy,
Childbirth, and the Puerperium. Highlight the
category of interest (e.g., Normal pregnancy
and/or delivery). Hold the control key down
and click to make multiple selections. Click
on Next. Select the outcomes and measures of
interest (e.g., Number of discharges) and click
on Next. Select patient and hospital characteristics
(e.g., All patients in all hospitals) and click
on Next. View your results. HCUP is an initiative
of the Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
HCUP statistical briefs include
Hospitalizations
related to childbirth,
2003.
(2006).
- Health
Data for All Ages.
Presents interactive online data tables on
pregnancy and birth, health conditions and
risk factors, health care access and use, and
mortality. Prenatal care data is presented
by maternal age, race/ethnicity, prenatal care
timing (i.e., first trimester, late, or none),
state, and for the United States overall. This
data warehouse is a service of the National
Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).
- National
Center for Health Statistics (NCHS): VitalStats.
Presents interactive maps and tables for over
100 public-use birth variables such as low
birthweight, gestation, pregnancy-associated
risk factors, and cesarean deliveries.
- National
Quality Measures Clearinghouse™
(NQMC). Contains evidence-based
health care quality measures and measure sets for
physicians, hospitals, and health plans to evaluate
and improve the quality of health care for consumers.
Identify measures on the topic by entering pregnancy in
the search box. Click on Search to get your results.
The database is sponsored by the Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
- Office
on Women's Health (OWH) Quick Health Data Online.
Offers comparative, county-level health data
for all 50 states, the District of Columbia,
and U.S. territories and possessions. County,
state, regional and national data are available
and can be accessed by gender, race/ethnicity,
and age, concurrently. Maternal health is a
category.
- PeriStats.
Provides access to maternal- and infant-health-related
data at the national, state, county, and city levels.
Topics include the timing and adequacy of prenatal
care, tobacco use, childbirth method, preterm birth,
infant mortality, and health insurance coverage.
Over 60,000 graphs, maps, and tables are available.
PeriStats is a service of the March
of Dimes Perinatal Data Center.
- Pregnancy
Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS).
Presents state-specific, population-based data
on maternal attitudes and experiences before,
during, and immediately following pregnancy.
PRAMS is a surveillance project of the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and
state health departments. Recent reports are
available via CDC's Division
of Reproductive Health.
- State
Health Facts Online.
Contains state-level data on women's health-related
Medicaid information, enrollment practices,
state insurance mandates, and refusal clauses.
Includes data about contraception, infertility
diagnosis and treatment, prenatal care, and
health care access. Information can be displayed
as tables, graphs, or color-coded maps. This
database is a service of the Kaiser
Family Foundation (KFF).
- Title
V Information System (Title V IS).
Contains data from annual Title V Block Grant
applications and reports submitted by all 59
U.S. states and jurisdictions. To learn about
states' efforts to improve pregnancy outcomes,
conduct several searches. Select Financial
Data to view state and federal budget and expenditure
data on prenatal care for pregnant women. Under
Program Data, find the number of pregnant women
served by Title V, health screening and treatment
information by states, Medicaid/non-Medicaid
comparison of prenatal care services, and eligibility
criteria for pregnant women for Medicaid and
SCHIP. Also view Measurement and Indicator
Data to learn about states' efforts to address
a core set of performance and outcome measures
that include services for pregnant women. Title
V IS is a service of the Maternal
and Child Health Bureau (MCHB).
Also see MCHB's Discretionary
Grant Information System (DGIS).
- Also see the Morbidity
& Mortality Weekly Reports (MMWR),
the National
Center for Health Statistics (NCHS),
the Pregnancy
Surveillance System (PNSS),
and Women's
health USA (2006).
- Literature
and Research Databases
- Clinical
Evidence. Describes
the best available evidence from systematic
reviews of the literature about the prevention
and treatment of clinical conditions. Topics
include pregnancy
and childbirth.
Clinical Evidence is available by subscription
only from the BMJ Publishing Group Limited,
located in the United Kingdom.
- Cochrane
Database of Systematic Reviews.
Presents systematic reviews of the effects
of health care interventions internationally.
Provides access to abstracts that can be browsed
by title or by topic such as pregnancy
and childbirth.
Access to the full-text article requires a
subscription. The database is published by
the Cochrane
Collaboration, an
international not-for-profit organization based
in the United Kingdom.
- Computer
Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects
(CRISP). Contains
information about federally funded biomedical
research projects conducted at universities,
hospitals, and other research institutions.
Search CRISP to identify scientific concepts,
emerging trends and techniques, or specific
projects and/or investigators. Type preconception
pregnancy in the search term box of the Query
Form and click on
Or. Click on Submit Query to get your results.
Narrow your search by selecting a grant activity,
fiscal year, or state. The database is maintained
by the Office of Extramural Research at the National
Institutes of Health (NIH).
- Database
of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE).
Contains summaries of systematic reviews that
have met strict quality criteria. Included
reviews have to be about the effects of interventions.
Each summary also provides a critical commentary
on the quality of the review. The database
covers a broad range of health topics, including
pregnancy. To identify summaries on the topic,
type preconception pregnancy in the
search box, and click on Any of these words.
Click on Search to get your results. DARE is
produced and maintained by the Centre
for Reviews and Dissemination at
the University of York.
- HP2010
Information Access Project (HP2010 IAC).
Provides an automatic search mechanism for
published literature indexed in PubMed related
to the Healthy
People 2010 objectives
about maternal,
infant, and child health and family
planning. Also links
to a narrative for each objective and the complete
chapters about maternal, infant, and child
health and family planning in the text, Healthy
People 2010: Understanding and improving health,
2nd ed. (2000).
This service is provided by the Partners
in Information Access for the Public Health
Workforce, a collaboration
of federal agencies, public health organizations,
and health sciences libraries.
- Maternal
and Child Health Library at
the National
Center for Education in Maternal and Child
Health (NCEMCH),
Georgetown University. Maintains several databases
to collect, manage, and disseminate knowledge
about maternal and child health, with special
emphasis on knowledge gained from initiatives
and programs supported by the Maternal
and Child Health Bureau (MCHB).
The library's bibliographic databases are
Healthy
Start Collection Database.
Comprises an online catalog
of over 2,000 items developed
by Healthy Start sites,
including brochures,
bylaws, curricula, marketing
materials, policies,
and national evaluation
reports along with other
material related to maternal
and infant health. Materials
are classified according
to the nine Healthy Start
models of intervention
that range from community-based
consortia to risk prevention
and reduction. Search the
database using the term prenatal,
and narrow your search
by selecting a model
of intervention, project
name, or additional terms.
MCHLine®.
Comprises an online catalog of materials in the Maternal
and Child Health Library.
Pregnancy-related bibliographies include
Adolescent prenatal care, AIDS/HIV in pregnancy,
Nutrition during pregnancy, Prenatal care, Smoking
during pregnancy, and Substance use during pregnancy.
The Maternal and Child Health
Library also offers organizations and programs databases.
- National
Center for Cultural Competence (NCCC) Resource
Database. Presents
information about demographic data, policies,
practices, articles, books, research initiatives
and findings, curricula, multimedia materials,
and Web sites about cultural and linguistic
competence. Identify materials on the topic
by entering pregnan in the Keyword field
of the database
search form. Click
on Search to get your results.
- National
Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC).
Contains evidence-based clinical practice guidelines
and related materials for health professionals.
Identify guidelines on the topic by entering preconception
OR prenatal in the search box. NGC is an
initiative of the Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
- PubMed.
Contains over 17 million citations for biomedical
articles that date back to the 1950s. These citations
are from MEDLINE and additional life sciences journals.
PubMed includes links to sites providing full-text
articles and other related resources. To identify
citations on the topic, enter the search phrase preconception
care OR prenatal care. Then, click on Limits
and make the following selections on the page:
select a date (e.g. Published in the last 2 years);
click on Humans; click on Languages: English; and
select Tag Terms: MeSH Major Topic. Click on Go
to get your results. For additional pregnancy-related
terms, search MeSH,
the controlled vocabulary used for indexing articles
for MEDLINE/PubMed. PubMed is a service of the National
Library of Medicine (NLM).
- Society
of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada:
Clinical Practice Guidelines.
Offers clinical practice guidelines published
in the peer-reviewed journal, Journal of Obstetrics
and Gynaecology of Canada. Select a pregnancy
topic to link to all available guidelines on
that topic.
- Also see the Household
Products Database and
the Food
and Nutrition Information Center (FNIC) Databases.
- Programs
Databases
- Health
Services Research Projects in Progress (HSRProj).
Provides information about ongoing health services
research and public health projects. To identify
projects on the topic, enter the search phrase preconception
OR pregnancy. Click on Search to get your
results. HSRProj is funded by the National
Library of Medicine (NLM).
- Maternal
and Child Health Library at
the National
Center for Education in Maternal and Child
Health (NCEMCH),
Georgetown University. Maintains two databases
to identify pregnancy-related organizations
and programs:
MCH
Organizations Database.
Lists over 2,000 government,
professional, and voluntary
organizations involved
in MCH activities, primarily
at a national level.
Several national organizations
offer information about
pregnancy and prenatal
care, and these appear
in a list produced
from the database.
MCH
Projects Database.
Comprises an online catalog of projects funded
by the Maternal
and Child Health Bureau (MCHB).
To identify projects that focus on the topic,
type prenatal in the abstract field
of the database search form. Conduct additional
separate searches using the terms preconception, pregnant,
and perinatal. Final
reports are available
from several of these projects. Also see MCHB's Discretionary
Grant Information System (DGIS).
Electronic
Newsletters and Online Discussion Group
Resources for Consumers
Find Preconception
and Prenatal Care
Web
Sites for Consumers
- American
College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM): myMidwife.org.
Includes articles and information for women
about pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum care,
and infant care.
- CDC's
Pregnancy Information.
Includes information about healthy pregnancy
and healthy pregnancy planning to prevent birth
defects.
- Childbirth
Connection: For Women.
Includes information about pregnancy and its
stages, pictures of the week-by-week development
of a baby in utero, quotes from mothers about
childbirth, and information about the rights
of childbearing women. Presents links to recommended
pregnancy resources and a list of recommended
pregnancy books.
- Food
and Drug Administration (FDA): Pregnancy.
Includes information about medications, medical
devices, and food safety for pregnant women.
- Health
Information: Pregnancy. Presents
fact sheets in English and Spanish on pregnancy,
childbirth, breastfeeding, genetics, and serious
pregnancy and fetal conditions.
- Life's
Greatest Miracle.
Presents microimagery of human development
from embryo through newborn. Includes a videotape
broadcast describing DNA and fetal development
from conception through birth, a pregnant mother's
journal, and information about prenatal testing,
stem cell technology, cell division, and how
sex is determined. Also includes links to additional
resources and a teacher's guide. This resource
is presented by NOVA
Online, part of
the Public
Broadcasting Service (PBS).
- March
of Dimes (MOD): Pregnancy and Newborn Health
Education Center.
Offers information in English and Spanish about
preconception and prenatal care, pregnancy
complications, labor and delivery, and newborn
care. Also offers a monthly electronic newsletter
and an online question-and-answer service in
English and Spanish.
- MedlinePlus:
Pregnancy. Includes
links to information in English and Spanish
about preconception and prenatal care. Links
to MedlinePlus pages on related topics, including prenatal
care; folic
acid; high-risk
pregnancy; pregnancy
and substance abuse; prenatal
testing; twins,
triplets, multiple births; infant
and newborn care; and breastfeeding.
- Mothers of Supertwins (MOST). Presents
information and support during pregnancy, infancy,
and childhood for families who have or are expecting
triplets or higher numbers of babies.
- National
Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB).
Includes fact sheets, published interviews
with experts, and information in a question-and-answer
format about preconception planning, prenatal
care, and infant care.
- Our
Bodies Ourselves Health Resource Center.
Provides articles, book excerpts, news briefs,
and Web site and book recommendations about
pregnancy, childbirth, infant care, miscarriage,
and infertility and assisted reproduction.
- Planned
Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA).
Gives information in English and Spanish about
planning for pregnancy, prenatal care, and
diet and healthy lifestyle choices during pregnancy.
- Through
the Looking Glass: National Resource Center
for Parents with Disabilities.
Presents resources for pregnant women with
disabilities, parents with disabilities, and
health professionals that include a catalog
of adaptive equipment for parents and a national
toll-free information and referral line.
- womenshealth.gov:
Healthy Pregnancy.
Offers information in English and Spanish about
preparing for pregnancy, what happens during
each of the three trimesters of pregnancy,
pregnancy complications, labor, childbirth,
and infant care.
- Also note: Many of the resources
presented in the following section of this knowledge
path, Resources
on Specific Aspects of Preconception and Pregnancy,
also contain resources for consumers.
Resources on Specific
Aspects of Preconception and Pregnancy
Childbirth
Depression
Drug and Alcohol
Use
Environmental
Concerns
Fertility
and Infertility
Genetics
Nutrition
Oral
Health
Tobacco Use
Childbirth
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