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@article{201291,
        author = {Mrs. Kala.Suneetha and Pallavi Sharin Topno and W.S Khanpam and Sujata Vijay Shinde and Kalpana Tad},
        title = {A Community based cross sectional study on preconception awareness and use among pregnant women in rural Northen India},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {12},
        number = {12},
        pages = {3656-3663},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=201291},
        abstract = {Preconception Care (PCC) is an important part of the maternal, newborn and child health (MBCH) continuum. It is based on the principles of early detection and change of biomedical, behavioral, and social risk factors that need to be addressed prior to pregnancy. Although maternal mortality rates have improved significantly in India, maternal/perinatal morbidity remains high and is a major public health problem, particularly in the rural population and those who are socio-economically disadvantaged. There are few existing maternal health programmes in India that focus on preconception, with most stressing antenatal and in-hospital care. There is limited evidence from the community on awareness and use of PCC in India's rural areas. Hence, an effort has been made to find the extent of awareness of PCC and PCC related practices of pregnant women in the rural areas of Jaipur district, Rajasthan, in this study.
Materials and Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted among the pregnant women attending OG outpatient department Community health Centre. The women recruited were those who had signed an informed consent and had a gestational age < 28 weeks. Data was obtained on the basis of a semi structured questionnaire which was created from the FIGO preconception care assessment tool. Data on socio-demographic profile, obstetric history, high risk factors in pregnancy, life style practices, nutritional supplementation, awareness and utilization to PCC services were collected using the questionnaire. Electronic data entry and descriptive statistics were used for data analysis.
Results: For the patients included in the study, there were 112 pregnant women. The mean age of the subjects was 24.6±4.4 years. About 60% of the pregnancies had been planned while 40.2% were unplanned. Ten per cent (10.7%) of the subjects had factors indicating a risk of pregnancy. Of the multiparous women, 85.5% had an inter-pregnancy interval of 1000 days or less. Prior knowledge of PCC was reported as very low with only 3.6% of the participants indicating that they had previously heard about PCC. There was also low use of preconception services. Only two women consumed folic acid preconceptually and no woman had any type of preconception health screening.
Conclusion: This study reveals that awareness and utilization of preconception care is very low in the rural areas of Rajasthan. These results revealed that there is a significant unutilized potential in the current maternal health care system. To provide better maternal and neonatal outcomes in rural India, implementing PCC in routine maternal health and family planning services, and awareness creation, is critical.},
        keywords = {Preconception care, high-risk pregnancy, reproductive health, rural population.},
        month = {May},
        }