In this section you will learn about the things that might need to be considered in relation to pregnancy that connect to the right time and place.
Optimising care – time/place
We can all have a role in supporting women and their partners during the time before conception to understand the importance of optimizing their health and well being and there are many opportunities in our work where this can be included. This does not require significant financial costs or workload or reorganisation of care – but a shift in awareness, attitudes and behaviours.
Many of the messages are those we all provide in our daily work about healthy living and helping people to recognize unhealthy behaviours and signposting them to resources or supporting them to make changes.
What opportunities do we have in our own work?
Consider what you can do in your daily work to embed preconception health messaging.
This does not have to be time consuming or require expensive resources or training but may include:
- Appreciating the opportunities
- Easy non-judgmental conversations
- Signposting to resources and information
- Identifying local support and pathways of care
What are the challenges you would find?
We work with different communities and have varied roles in which we face challenges every day including:
- appreciate cultural differences and preferences
- engaging partners
- working with learning disabilities
- resources may not be culturally or socially appropriate
- colleagues may have less appreciation of the need
- time and workload
Watch: Ready for Pregnancy – British Sign Language Film
