• Getting healthy before pregnancy, for pregnancy
• Preconception and interconception health
• How and when to act to improve preconception health, and for whom

Learning objectives

• The need for preconception health
• How we can try to improve it

• Challenges of defining preconception
• The difficulties of identifying target groups

• Understand preconception health
• Articulate the challenges of improving preconception health

Hazel Inskip is a statistician and epidemiologist with an interest in preconception and pregnancy health. She established the Southampton Women’s Survey in 1998, an unusual cohort of children whose mothers were recruited before their conception. This has led to various intervention studies to improve preconception health.

• Overview of the role of vitamin D
• Vitamin D in pregnancy
• Vitamin D recommendations

Learning objectives

• The role of Vitamin D in health and in pregnancy

• Current scientific evidence around Vitamin D in pregnancy

• Summarise the key messages around the importance of Vitamin D in pregnancy, the latest scientific evidence and the current guidelines in the UK

Professor Lucilla Poston is Head of the Department of Women and Children’s Health, and of the School of Life Course Sciences at Kings College London (KCL). She holds the Tommy’s Charity Chair of Maternal and Fetal Health. A graduate in Physiology (University College London) with a PhD in the field of medicine, she directs a multidisciplinary team of scientists and health professionals which she established in 1995, located within Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London. Professor Poston’s a Fellow ad eundem of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), a National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Senior Investigator (emeritus) and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, UK. She is a member of the UK Government’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN), a Member of the UK Medical Research Council’s Global Health Board and President of the International Society for the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease. In 2017, Professor Poston was honoured by Her Majesty the Queen as a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) for her services to Women’s Health.

This session will cover:

• Roles of key micronutrients in pregnancy
• Common micronutrient deficiencies in pregnancy
• Micronutrient requirements in pregnancy

Learning Objectives

Attendees will gain the following from this session:

Clearing understanding and be aware of:

• the function of key micronutrients in pregnancy
• the common micronutrient deficiencies in pregnancy

Be aware of:

• the key micronutrient requirements in pregnancy

Graduating as a pharmacist, Dr Jessica Farebrother became convinced that health systems should focus on keeping people healthy (rather than treating them when sick). She holds a master’s in public health, a PhD in human nutrition and is a registered nutritionist. She currently holds a research and teaching position in the Human Nutrition Laboratory, ETH Zürich.

This session will cover:

• Overview of what gestational diabetes (GDM) is
• Diagnosis and management
• Short and long-term implications

Learning Objectives

Attendees will gain the following from this session:

Clearing understanding and be aware of:

• GDM as a clinical entity

Be aware of:

• approaches to screening and diagnosis, and available management

Be able to:

• summarise the key findings and messages

Sara White is a Metabolic Physician with clinical expertise in diabetes in pregnancy. During her PhD she investigated early pregnancy gestational diabetes (GDM) prediction and metabolic profiles amongst obese women with GDM. Her research explores GDM pathophysiology and stratification of potential subtypes, plus ways to improve outcomes in at-risk women.

• Interventions in women before, during and after pregnancy
• Lifestyle and pharmacological interventions
• Higher risk women such as those with obesity or those at risk of developing gestational diabetes

Learning objectives

• The implications of obesity in pregnancy to both mum and child

• The research around lifestyle and pharmacological interventions in women who are obese or at risk of developing adverse outcomes such as gestational diabetes

• Summarise the key findings and main messages

Dr Angela Flynn is a research associate in maternal nutrition in the Department of Women and Children’s Health at King’s College London

She started her career as a community pharmacist in Ireland and subsequently completed an MSc in Nutrition followed by a PhD in Maternal Nutrition at King’s College London. Her research focuses on interventions that aim to improve outcomes for women before, during and after pregnancy, particularly women at risk of developing pregnancy complications. Other interests include the assessment of maternal micronutrient status and its relationship with pregnancy outcomes.

• Current UK Infant feeding guidance, changes in advice over time and the evidence
• Who is at higher risk of allergy, current allergy prevention advice and when to introduce complementary foods for allergy prevention
• Helping babies to eat potential allergens and the challenges involved

Learning objectives

• UK infant feeding and allergy prevention advice for complementary feeding

• The evidence for complementary feeding and allergy prevention
• Allergy prevention during pregnancy and breast feeding
• What, when and how to feed the common food allergens to babies

• Summarise and describe the current advice for allergy prevention during pregnancy, breastfeeding and for the introduction of solids to infants
• Recognise and outline what, when and to how to feed infants for allergy prevention and the challenges involved

Karen Wright is a Paediatric Allergy Research Dietitian at St Thomas’ Hospital London, currently working with the LEAP Team. Karen has a special interest in allergy education and teaches on a variety of national allergy education programs as well as being a member of the BSACI Allergy Education Network project.

• How our food system impacts child health
• The role of our food environment and government intervention
• Policy to improve nutrition in the early years

Learning objectives

• Trends in child health
• The environmental factors that influence food intake

• How commercial baby foods differ to public health recommendations
• Proposed nutrition policy for the early years
• Campaigns from young people championing a healthier food environment

• Demonstrate understanding of the role of government intervention to improve population health
• Locate public health policies relevant to early years nutrition

Jenny is Head of Nutrition at Jamie Oliver and is Registered with the Association for Nutrition. Jenny works across the Jamie Oliver Group to implement nutrition standards and is particularly passionate about improving the food environment through policy change. She is part of the Expert Advisory Group for Bite Back 2030, a youth-led movement calling for a food system that puts children’s health first. Jenny was previously Campaign Manager at Action on Sugar and developed MEND (child weight management) programmes, upskilling health professionals internationally to deliver these. She has an MSc in Nutrition from Kings College London and a BA in English and Sports Science from Loughborough University.

• Global nutritional indicators in infancy and early childhood
• 2025 Global Nutrition Targets for maternal, infant and young child nutrition
• The triple burden of malnutrition; undernutrition, overnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies
• Causes and consequences of malnutrition
• Interactive case studies

Learning objectives

• Global Nutrition targets related to early life nutrition, and current progress towards them

• Consequences of malnutrition in early life, including the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition

• Define important global indicators of maternal, infant and young child nutrition
• Identify immediate, underlying and structural/societal causes of malnutrition

Sam McCann is a post-doctoral research associate in the Department of Women and Children’s Health, KCL. Her main research interest is how early life nutrition, along with social and environmental factors impact cognitive development in the short- and long- term.