Early origins of health

Click here >> for C3′s events and workshops on the early origins of health.

Introduction

Early Origins of Health meeting

In recent years, experts have focused on the ‘first 1000 days’ – the uterine environment and the early years of life – as being a marker for the lifelong increased risk of several chronic diseases. Linking maternal and child health to the prevention of diabetes, cardiovascular  and other non-communicable diseases provides an ideal window of opportunity on which healthy foundations of life can be built – a change that will both have positive effects on maternal and child health, and on illness and premature death in the longer term. This investment in the Girl Effect is an important component of NCD prevention and global health (see box).

Blueprint for change

Also of interest: The Girl Effect >>

Three major international companies joined with C3 Collaborating for Health to focus on the early origins of health, working together on a blueprint for change that will enable women to have a healthy pregnancy and children to have a healthy start in life.  This included access to appropriate nutrition, including micronutrients, as well as screening for and management of conditions such as gestational diabetes (GDM).

This blueprint acknowledges the need for positively influencing women’s standing in society, including the cultural, family-related, political and societal contexts set for maternal and child health. Stronger health systems, including improving health education training and health literacy among adolscent girls and mothers, need to be both a compoent of the change and an outcome of cross-sector collaboration.

Working together

C3 has, to date, held three events – two in London and one in New York – to discuss a report on the evidence (here >>) and lay the groundwork for interventions aimed at having an impact on the early origins of health (click here >> for more information on the meetings).

In May, C3 co-sponsored an event as part of the Prenatal Programming and Toxicity Conference (PPTOX) in Paris bringing together the prenatal programming/developmental origins of adult disease community and the NCD community with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (more information on the conference here >>).

In addition, C3 Collaborating for Health hosted a plenary session on the developmental origins of health and disease for a large global audience at the triennial 20^th World Congress in Rome in October of the Federation of International Gynaecologists and Obstetricians (FIGO). FIGO brings together 8,000–10,000 obstetricians and gynaecologists from 124 countries, and its mission is to promote the wellbeing of women and to raise the standards of practice in obstetrics and gynaecology. There were three expert presentations focusing on a) developmental programming and the future risk of NCDs, b) epigenetic mechanisms linking early life environment with NCDs and c) foetal nutrition and NCDs, and it concluded with a panel discussion with leaders from FIGO who have particular interest and knowledge in this area, including the incoming FIGO President Professor Sabaratnam Arulkumaran.

• Click here >> for presentation on ‘Developmental programming and risk of non-communicable disease’ (Professor Caroline Fall)
• Click here >> for presentation on ‘Epigenetic mechanisms linking early life environment with NCDs’ (Karen Lillycrop)
• Click here >> for a blog on the BMJ website about the event, by Pat Hughes
• Click here >> for a blog about tobacco in pregnancy, drawing on the FIGO event, by Pat Hughes

For more information about the project, please contact Christine Hancock at C3 Collaborating for Health [email].