preconception health

by the North Carolina Preconception Health Campaign

Each year, many of us begin making resolutions to eat less, exercise more and manage our stress. ‘Taking care of yourself to become a healthier you’ is a key mantra of the North Carolina Preconception Health Campaign (NCPHC). This message is communicated all year through education and trainings on health topics such as healthy weight, folic acid supplementation, tobacco cessation, reproductive life planning, early prenatal care and having a medical home. Each topic recommendation may help lower one’s risk of having a premature baby.

By now, much of the public health and health care community in North Carolina recognize this Campaign as the March of Dimes North Carolina Preconception Health Campaign. We are known for spreading preconception health messages within health departments and doctor offices, among consumers and providers, and at community- and professional-level events. 

However, many people still remember our initial years as the North Carolina Folic Acid Campaign, a nationally recognized, award-winning campaign created to improve infant and maternal health by promoting the benefits and consumption of folic acid. While we were similarly engaged across the state as the Folic Acid Campaign as we are now as the Preconception Health Campaign, our messaging was more singularly focused on the promotion of folic acid use among women of childbearing age. And through those first years’ work many came to recognize our flagship folic acid pieces. 

In the summer of 2012, the Preconception Health Leadership Team held a series of three regional coalition meetings with a total of 64 participants throughout the state in Boone, Elizabeth City and Spindale. The Preconception Health Leadership Team also coordinated an Annual Preconception Health Coalition meeting in Asheboro in July 2012 with 54 participants from different areas of the state. All of these meetings were instrumental in gathering information for the Preconception Health Coalition’s strategic planning process, celebrating accomplishments, and sharing best practices. Work on the 2014-2019 NC Preconception Health Strategic Plan was also initiated at these meetings.

May 30, 2012 was a great day for preconception health in the East! While the day might have gloomy and ended in storms and flash floods, within the walls of the Pasquotank County Health Department in Elizabeth City there was a bright glimmer of light in the world of women’s health. I was able to participate in the first of several Regional Preconception Health Meetings sponsored by the Women’s Health Branch of the NC Department of Health and Human Services.

The Third National Summit on Preconception Health is the crème de la crème of professional conferences for us here at the North Carolina Preconception Health Campaign. This year, we are lucky enough to be able to take most of the Campaign staff with us to Tampa, FL. That’s right; six of the seven Campaign staff are taking a pilgrimage to sunny Florida to immerse ourselves in everything preconception health.