Consumer satisfaction with a weight-gain intervention programme for obese pregnant women

Abstract

Objective: To investigate women's attitudes and satisfaction with a weight gain intervention programme during pregnancy.Design: Exploratory descriptive study. Data were collected via interviews. with the treatment and would attend the programme if they were pregnant again. Most of the women stated that they had changed their eating and exercise habits during pregnancy, and almost all of them had continued with these new habits. Even though the weight gain goal of maximum 6.9 kg was reached by less than half of the participants, most of the women were satisfied with their weight gain. 71.4 % of the women participated in a aqua aerobic class. They stated that the most satisfactory experience was the exercise form and that it also was a good social experience. Setting: University hospital Participants Key conclusions and implications for practice:A pregnant woman herself must be actively involved in setting her own goals to prevent an excessive weight gain during pregnancy. Considerable effort and support must be placed on discussing strategies, pitfalls and risks. In order for the woman to maintain the change in attitude and habits, she must probably be given continuous feedback and reinforcement over the long term.

The views of pre- and post-natal women and health professionals regarding gestational weight gain: An exploratory study

“…Furthermore, it is important for intervention success that pregnant women are motivated to keep a healthy weight in pregnancy [17,19], and findings from this and other research [20] indicates that to increase women's motivation regarding keeping a healthy weight in pregnancy, the information given to women should include the benefits to their baby if they avoid excessive weight gain. It is important that health professionals realise how essential information on gestational weight gain is, and manage to integrate it into their discussion with women to avoid the 'information overload' women and health professionals mention both in this study and previous research [20].…”

“…Furthermore, it is important that health professionals can provide continuous weight management support and feedback throughout pregnancy and that the woman feels she is a part of the process by evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of changing her behaviour [19]. This tailoring of care and information may be especially important in regards to gestational weight gain, as both the Pregnancy Book, and the internet websites the participants reported visiting, only provide general advice.…”

“…The possibilities for midwives to advise on a healthy lifestyle for pregnant women should not be underestimated [18] and women have reported that their midwife was the most appropriate person to provide support [20] and that they are very satisfied with receiving this support regarding gestational weight gain from their health care provider [19]. Our findings show that health professionals need to be supported, in terms of being given knowledge and opportunity, to provide women with the information and tools to achieve a healthy gestational weight gain.…”

“…Considering midwives do not have much time to do this; advice must be kept concise. Pregnant women have previously reported wanting individualised advice regarding weight [21] and not only does this seem better from a quality of care point of view, but a recent study found that women found individualised weight goals very motivating [19]. Thus, to conclude, future interventions targeting pregnant women's weight gain may in the first instance need to target midwives and other health professionals to ensure they have the knowledge, skills and opportunity to help women maintain a healthy weight in pregnancy.…”

“…Additionally, all women, irrespective of pre-pregnancy weight, must be careful to not gain excessive weight in pregnancy [9], thus many women may benefit from an intervention targeting gestational weight gain [17]. It is important to take pregnant women's views regarding weight into account to be able to develop effective interventions [18] and to increase the chance of intervention success, women need to be positive towards healthy weight management in pregnancy [17,19]. Consequently, before designing an intervention targeting gestational weight gain we wanted to explore women's views towards this issue.…”