Helping Women Protect their Health and Baby-To-Be

Imagine having the chance to prepare for a healthy child—and even think about whether or not pregnancy is a goal for you—before you conceive. Preconception health, or health before pregnancy, is very important and can affect the health of your future baby. By making a plan before getting pregnant and taking the time to get healthy, you can take the steps to a healthier you and baby-to-be.

Now, there’s an app for that. The Show Your Love app, funded through a CDC Foundation partnership with Anthem, Inc., is part of the Show Your Love Campaign, which was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The campaign’s main goal is to increase the number of women who plan their pregnancies and engage in healthy behaviors before becoming pregnant and to reduce the number of birth defects.

That’s important, because as CDC reports, about 1 in every 33 babies born in the United States is affected by a birth defect, a leading cause of death in the first year of life. Women who improve their health before pregnancy can be healthier mothers and have healthier babies. And healthier women have less chance of encountering other problems with pregnancy, such as gestational diabetes, miscarriage or preterm labor. Their babies have less chance for problems, such as preterm birth, low birth weight, high birth weight or stillbirth.

Thanks to the new app, women who wish to become pregnant can plan their pregnancy and chart their course, accessing helpful features to maintain a healthy lifestyle including:

• Daily tracking of behaviors.
• Tips, tools and resources for healthy behaviors.
• Helpful reminders including doctors’ appointments, ovulation cycles and medication schedules.

On behalf of the CDC Foundation, we are very grateful for Anthem’s support in making this useful app available to women around the country.

The free Show Your Love app is available on the iTunes and Google Play store.