Preconception care

Sexual and reproductive health is fundamental for individuals, couples and families, as well as for the social and economic development of communities and nations. Everyone has the right to enjoy reproductive health, which is the basis for having healthy children, a healthy reproductive life and happy families. 

Women living in low- and middle-income countries suffer excessively from unintended pregnancies; maternal death and disability; sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV; gender-based violence; and other problems related to their reproductive system and their partners’ sexual behaviour.

Young people often face barriers in trying to get the information and care they need, which places adolescent reproductive health as another issue that needs attention. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) publication, “A framework for implementing the reproductive health strategy in the South-East Asia Region” (1), the critical importance of reproductive

health to development has been acknowledged at the highest level, with the commitment to achieve universal access to reproductive health by 2015. 

This is the culmination of more than a decade of advocacy since the consensus and Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo in 1994 (2).