Abstract
Women have predictable long-term reproductive healthcare needs and more frequent interactions with health services than men. Optimal health care for women as they age requires a level of service integration that contrasts with the fragmentation of current services. Nonetheless, a life course perspective is evident in the government’s white paper Healthy Lives, Healthy People,1 which emphasises the importance of environmental influences in pregnancy and early postpartum life. This paper considers the rationale for a life course approach to women’s health care more broadly and the implications for health service delivery