ABSTRACT
The knowledge that certain processes in utero and in early childhood can affect the risk of developing noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) provides an opportunity to enforce interventions during this critical time, when they have the greatest effect. Hence, the effort to provide adequate prenatal care, preventing or treating conditions affecting fetal epigenetic programming, is probably the most effective strategy to control the expansion of this great pandemic of NCDs. The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) is a professional organization dedicated to the improvement of women's health and rights and to the reduction of disparities in healthcare available to women and newborns, to advancing the science and practice of obstetrics and gynecology. For example, the FIGO Saving Mothers and Newborns Initiative aims to increase women's access to new, cost-effective, and evidence-based technology for the reduction of maternal and newborn mortality in 10 low-resource countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe.
