Anticipating the conception of a child can be accompanied by a lot of uncertainty about how to plan for pregnancy and parenthood. But relatively few people are aware that the things they do months or years before conceiving can influence the development of their future children.
The preconception period is often overlooked by prospective parents, but is crucial as it sets the foundation for healthy pregnancies and, ultimately, thriving children. Optimizing the physical and mental health of both parents during this time can help create an environment that gives their offspring the best possible start in life.
While it’s well known that exposure to adverse physical or psychological conditions during pregnancy can powerfully affect child development, emerging evidence suggests that factors occurring before conception can also have lasting effects on offspring.
As professors of child development and perinatal psychiatry, our work is aimed at identifying which preconception factors have the potential to influence offspring outcomes, and how to intervene to reduce their effects to give all children the best chance to succeed and thrive.
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Impact of the pregnancy planning period
The period of pregnancy planning represents a critical opportunity for future parents to optimize the lives of their children. While some physical and mental health factors shift over time, others are relatively stable. Regardless, enhancing physical and psychological health months or even weeks before conception may have powerful positive effects on offspring.
For example, public health authorities recommend that women of childbearing age take a folic acid supplement, as this can prevent neural tube defects and enhance the long-term verbal and social skills of offspring.
Maintaining a healthy diet (for example, eating plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and protein) and a healthy weight before pregnancy is also associated with a lower risk of behavioural problems, improved motor and communication skills and better academic achievement.
Ultimately, optimizing one’s physical health has many benefits for parents and their children and paves the way for improving their mental health as well.
Mental health and pregnancy planning
Even though planning a pregnancy may be stressful for some, optimizing one’s mental health has benefits not only for parents, but also for their future children.
For example, children whose mothers experience a worsening of depression from preconception to postpartum were less able to control their behaviour and attention. Furthermore, high levels of stress in mothers pre-conceptually are linked to more negative emotionality and impulsivity in children.
As a result, increasing the focus of public health efforts on the mental health of parents could be crucial to enhancing child development as well.
Partners are important too
Even though the health of mothers and birthing parents can have an important impact on the development of future offspring, healthy partners can also help promote positive long-term outcomes in children.
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For example, paternal mental health problems present prior to pregnancy increase the risk of pre-term delivery, which is linked to a higher likelihood of behavioural problems and academic difficulties in children later in life.
Partners can also provide support and motivation to improve and/or maintain the healthy habits of mothers and birthing parents, which can help optimize offspring development.
Giving future children the best start in life
A number of practical steps can be taken by parents when planning a pregnancy to help enhance child development.
Eating a healthy diet and engaging in regular exercise can improve your physical health.
Optimizing mental health through exercise, nurturing relationships, building social networks, managing stress and seeking counselling and other help when needed can promote well-being during this important time.
We’re still learning about the preconception period
Research aimed at understanding the long-term effects of preconception conditions on later child development is still relatively new. Our work is attempting to expand this knowledge base by developing a cohort study that begins in the preconception phase and follows parents throughout pregnancy and into the postpartum period.
So far, more than 500 women across Canada have joined the study, and we are continuing to enrol new participants until the end of August 2025. Please note that the web page is in French, but English speakers are welcome to join the study. However, since all research materials are in French, participants must be able to understand written French to take part in the study.
Our work will examine how parents’ mental health evolves across the perinatal period. This study is intended to help us understand the transition to parenthood and how factors present before conception can influence children’s development.
The pregnancy planning period is a time when parents can make positive changes in their lives that can benefit their health and the development of their future children. Investing in the physical and mental health of both parents is critical for preparing them to welcome a healthy child and can benefit both their family and society.
