Premarital health counseling: A must

Abstract

Premarital Health Counseling (PMHC) is emerging as a growing trend worldwide. The couples are provided with accurate and unbiased information and assistance, who are planning to get marry with the aim of screening, educating, and counseling about nutritional disorders, communicable diseases, medical conditions, hereditary/genetic disorders, and guiding for a healthy pregnancy. Premarital screening and adequate counseling are essential for changing attitudes toward consanguineous marriage particularly in places where consanguineous and "tribal" marriages are common, resulting in a high incidence of genetic disorders. Although making PMHC obligatory in India may appear to be a very exciting and promising proposal, its implementation still has various ethical issues and other barriers that need to be addressed.