Background: Preconception care is an opportunity to change unhealthy behaviors which in turn reduces unplanned pregnancy and plays an important role in reducing maternal and infant mortality. The aim of this study was to determine the level of preconception care and its related factors in pregnant women. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 394 pregnant women referred to Gorgan health centers in 2017. Samples were selected by multi-stage stratified sampling method from Gorgan health centers in Golestan province. Data was gathered using self-report questionnaire. Data analysis was performed using chi-square test, Fisher's exact, and Kruskal-Wallis tests in SPSS-16. The P-value less than 0.05 were considered significant. Results: 32.7% of women were received complete preconception care and 17.8% had no prepregnancy care. Only 44.2% of women used folic acid daily since the first trimester of pregnancy. Most of pregnant women (63.7%) performed triple screening laboratory test (FBS, CBC, TSH). Preconception care was more successful in mothers with higher level of education (P<0.001), having health insurance (P <0.001), history of disease (P=0.027), higher family income (P=0.044), and nulliparity (P = 0.049).

This research is part of an ongoing selection and breeding effort to target Iranian genotypes of Hypericum perforatum with the potential to produce higher amounts of desired secondary metabolites and greater resistance to fungal pathogens. There is a significant interest in the development of such cultivars to supply materials to the local pharmaceutical industries. For this reason, two improved cultivars of H. perforatum (“Gold” and “Veperikon”) were compared with a wild Iranian population (Ardabile population) under common garden conditions in Iran. Plants were cultivated from seed in a greenhouse and seedlings were transplanted after one month to the field plots. The statistical design of this study was a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. During the period of full flowering, selected phenological (number of days to flowering), morphological (plant height, mean leaf area, number of black glands/leaf) and chemical (hypericin and pseudohypericin content) characteristics were assessed. Our observations were that the “Veperikon” cultivar is very sensitive to soil-borne diseases. All transplanted seedlings were infected by the plant pathogenic fungus Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, which caused necrosis of the whole plant. Both the “Gold” cultivar and plants from the wild population persisted despite mild infections with C. gloeosporioides and produced flowering shoots at both the first and second years after cultivation. The “Gold” cultivar was superior to the Ardabile population in terms of phenological and morphological characteristics. The average naphthodianthrone content (% dry weight of tissue) for the wild Iranian population was 0.04(±0.01)%, but for the “Gold” cultivar, 0.33(±0.43)%. These data indicate that selection and directed cultivation of Iranian H. perforatum plants can result in plants with improved morphological, phenological and chemical characteristics.