However, despite the importance attributed to good prepregnancy care, there is little understanding of women’s behaviour or the information they acquire in preparation for pregnancy, or how this relates to uptake of care or interaction with health care professionals. Government policy in UK and USA aims to reduce perinatal morbidity and mortality by promotion of preconception care, but this requires an awareness of preconception health and care among both the public and health professionals and involves pregnancy planning on the part of the woman and health services before conception. These areas have not been well researched. We, therefore, assessed how women prepare for pregnancy through a survey of nearly twelve Kinase Inhibitor Library hundred women attending maternity services in North London. We assessed the level of information acquired about preconception health and care, the nature and extent of their preparation for pregnancy, and the likely impact of health professional input on positive behaviour change before conception. We also assessed the views and engagement of health professionals with preconception care through qualitative interviews with doctors and nurses from a range of health care professions. The antenatal survey was conducted between November 2011 and May 2012 in the maternity services of three North London Hospitals, which were selected to enable women from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds to participate. Women attending these maternity services represent a mix of both low and high risk pregnancies. Women were approached by trained researchers. They were given an information leaflet about the project and the consent process, and invited to consent to completing the antenatal questionnaire, and being contacted for follow-up questionnaire or interview. Women who did not wish to be followed-up were invited to complete the baseline questionnaire. For practical reasons, the recruitment process varied by site, but the aim in all three hospitals was to recruit women early in pregnancy to reduce recall bias and to recruit from both low and high risk clinics. Women filled in a self-completion pen-and-paper questionnaire while they were waiting for their appointment. The data was entered onto computer by a commercial data entry company. We carried out a literature review to explore themes and topics that should be covered in the questionnaire and examined preconception care questionnaires used in the Southampton Women’s Survey and in Sweden, to design an appropriate study questionnaire about health and health-related behaviour before and during pregnancy. The questionnaire was co-developed with the Margaret Pyke Forum, a user group that includes members of the public and patients of various ages and backgrounds, and then piloted with five pregnant women attending a maternity service in London. The questionnaire asked whether respondents had visited a health professional to obtain advice on getting pregnant; whether they had accessed information by any means about folic acid and vitamin supplements.