Pregnancy Planning and Diabetes: A Qualitative Exploration of Women's Attitudes Toward Preconception Care

Abstract

These findings raise questions about how preconception care should be provided to women with diabetes and highlight the pivotal importance of supportive, familiar relationships between health professionals and women with diabetes in the provision of individualized care and advice. By improving the quality of relationships and communication between health care providers and patients, we will be better able to provide care and advice that is perceived as relevant to the individual, whatever her stage of family planning.

Effect of implementation of a preconception counselling resource for women with diabetes: A population based study

“…Despite the known benefits of PPC in reducing adverse outcomes, attendance remains suboptimal [8,16]; in one recent study only 27% of pregnant women attended formal PPC services [8]. While many women with diabetes are aware of the need to plan for pregnancy, they are often not aware of the reasons why [17,18].…”

“…To avoid unnecessary anxiety, women need to need to know why planning is important and must feel confident that they can effectively plan their pregnancies [18]. There is 5 a clear need to deliver accessible and appropriate information in relation to pregnancy planning.…”

Preconception care for women with type 1 or type 2 diabetes mellitus: a mixed-methods study exploring uptake of preconception care

“…The full citations of the studies that were excluded from the review are given in Appendix 3. Of the 18 studies that were included (which are described in detail in Table 2), 13 [26][27][28][30][31][32][33][34]37,38,40,42,43 addressed the experiences and perceptions of women only, four 29,35,36,39 addressed the experiences and perceptions of healthcare practitioners only and one study 41 addressed the experiences and perceptions of women and practitioners. It is of note that there are relatively few studies that have explored the views of practitioners responsible for providing care to women with diabetes mellitus in pregnancy.…”

“…It is of note that there are relatively few studies that have explored the views of practitioners responsible for providing care to women with diabetes mellitus in pregnancy. The largest majority of studies (n = 9) 30,33,34,36,37,[40][41][42][43] were based in a UK context, six [27][28][29]31,35,39 were based in the USA and one study each was based in Australia, 32 Ireland 38 and Sweden. 26 The study based in Australia 32 is distinct because it focused specifically on the experiences of women living in rural and relatively isolated communities.…”

“…26 The study based in Australia 32 is distinct because it focused specifically on the experiences of women living in rural and relatively isolated communities. Of the 14 studies that addressed the experiences or perceptions of women, eight 27,28,31,33,37,38,41,42 included both women with T1DM and those with T2DM and six 26,30,32,34,40,43 included only women with T1DM. There were no studies that focused solely on the experiences of women with T2DM.…”