Other resources for health professionals

• Guidelines for preventive activities in general practice (The Red Book) 6th Edition

• Pregnancy Lifescripts

• Australian Immunisation Handbook 9th Edition

• Pregnancy Information Gateway - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Guidelines for preventive activities in general practice (The Red Book) 6th Edition

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) have developed a set of guidelines for preventive activities in general practice. The sections in the guideline that relate to preconception care are:

• Preventive activities before pregnancy - section 1 (pages 1-3)
• Genetic screening and testing - section 2 (pages 4-8)

To access the current red book please click here (pdf)

The recommendations in these guidelines are based on current evidence based guidelines for preventive activities. Precedence has been given to those that are most relevant to Australian general practice. Usually this means that the recommendations are based on Australian guidelines such as those endorsed by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

Pregnancy Lifescripts

Developed by the Department of Health and Ageing, Pregnancy Lifescripts provide general practitioners with simple, evidence-based tools to assist in the provision of structured, consistent lifestyle advice to pregnant or breastfeeding women and women contemplating pregnancy.

Australian Immunisation Handbook 9th Edition

The 9th edition of the Australian Immunisation Handbook is now available and provides clinical guidelines for health professionals related to vaccination in women planning a pregnancy and pregnant and breastfeeding women. Refer to section 2.3.2 for specific preconception care.
Download the guidelines (pdf).

Pregnancy Information Gateway - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is a premiere health promotion, prevention, and preparedness agency and a global leader in public health. CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) provides information and educational materials about pregnancy-related topics.

The pregnancy gateway is an alphabetical listing of pregnancy-related topics, research articles, data, guidelines, and resources that are intended for health care professionals and researchers.

For preconception care resources suitable for consumers please click here