J Korean Med Assoc.  2011 Aug;54(8):818-824. 10.5124/jkma.2011.54.8.818.

Maternal and paternal nutrition before conception

• Park JS

• KMID: 2191130
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5124/jkma.2011.54.8.818

Abstract

Optimizing the health of the mother and father before conception is important for pregnancy outcomes. Maternal and paternal nutritional status before conception has been known to affect the outcomes of spontaneous pregnancy and intrauterine fetal growth and development. Moreover, the fetal environment appears to affect the subsequent infant and childhood development, and it seems to have permanent impact on adult health as well. The ideal dietary advice before and during pregnancy would be to encourage the parents-to-be to have a healthy, balanced diet composed of iron- and folate-rich foods. All women who are planning a pregnancy or capable of becoming pregnant should be counseled to take daily folic acid (0.4 mg) to reduce the risk of neural tube defects. Also, in addition to taking folic acid, all pregnant women as well as women planning pregnancy should be screened for anemia and those with iron deficiency anemia should be treated with supplemental iron even before conception and throughout the whole pregnancy. Semen quality is an example of a paternal factor affected by nutritional status. Efforts to achieve good maternal and paternal nutritional status during preconception as well as throughout gestation best assure a good milieu for fetal growth and development. Therefore, the provision of preconception nutritional counseling is essential for the improvement of pregnancy outcomes.

Keyword

Preconception counseling; Nutrition; Pregnancy; Fetal development

MeSH Terms

Adult
Anemia
Anemia, Iron-Deficiency
Counseling
Diet
Fathers
Female
Fertilization
Fetal Development
Folic Acid
Humans
Infant
Iron
Mothers
Neural Tube Defects
Nutritional Status
Pregnancy
Pregnancy Outcome
Pregnant Women
Semen Analysis
Folic Acid
Iron

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