A qualitative exploration of the experiences of pregnant women living with obesity and accessing antenatal care

Women are advised to optimise weight before pregnancy. However, many are either already living with overweight or obesity prior to becoming pregnant, increasing the risks for adverse outcomes. Health care professionals (HCP) are responsible for advising women of risks throughout and following pregnancy. However, midwives find broaching the conversation around maternal obesity difficult. This difficulty may be due to insufficient knowledge regarding the management of obesity during pregnancy or because they do not wish to offend. This study explored the experiences of accessing antenatal care in pregnant women living with obesity. Seventeen women completed a semi-structuredinterview. Transcripts were analysed thematically. Four themes were developed:1) antenatal care is inconsistent, 2)additional support is needed, 3) women feel judged about their weight, and 4) weight cycling is highly prevalent. Findings suggest that pregnant women living with obesity often experience weight bias from HCPs, feel judged because of their weight and are left feeling confused andoverlooked. Women reported inconsistencies in advice and care offered,and acknowledged a lack of continuity of care throughout pregnancy. We call for an urgent need for further multidisciplinary training to address the concerns, experiences and needs of pregnant women living with obesity

Summer Conference on ‘Nutrition at Key Stages of the Life Cycle’:Summer conference, Liverpool.

Nutritional requirements of individuals vary across the lifecycle, according to activity,age, and gender. To optimize human health, consideration of nutritional priorities at each stage is needed. This conference brought together multidisciplinary experts in maternal and child nutrition and health, cardiometabolic and plant-based nutrition, and dietitians involved in the care of vulnerable populations, plus nutritional metabolism, health, and ageing. The presentations highlighted the most important nutrition research in these areas, updating knowledge and suggesting how dietary advice and policy could be adapted to incorporate research findings. With the global increase in non-communicable disease (NCD) and nutrition being considered as a key modifiable risk factor for the prevention and management of NCD, this conference was much needed

Nutrition and the use of multivitamin and mineral supplements during pregnancy and lactation

The dietary intake of pregnant women can have profound effects on pregnancy outcomes and adult disease risk in offspring. This is particularly so of some vulnerable groups of pregnant women including adolescents, vegetarians and vegan, underweight women, obese women and women who have undergone bariatric surgery. These groups present nutritional challenges and require additional supervision during pregnancy. This paper discusses the effects of dietary supplements in relation to the specific needs of the aforementioned groups in comparison to the needs of the general pregnant population

The thoughts and feelings of student midwives regarding offering healthy eating advice during antenatal care

Antenatal Care Guidelines(1) state that midwives should discuss nutrition, diet and vitamin supplementation at booking-in appointments. However, midwives report a lack of confidence and skills regarding advising women about health eating(2). The aim of thisstudy was to evaluate nutrition education sessions for student midwives, delivered by a dietitian.Second year student midwives (n = 23) were recruited during a taught nutrition session at their university. They were asked to provide free-text feedback on anonymous post-it notes regarding their thoughts and feelings about offering healthy eating and weightmanagement advice during antenatal care. The comments were collated and analysed thematically.Two main themes were identified: 1) confidence about delivering healthy eating advice and 2) nutrition knowledge. Regarding confidence, about half of the students stated that they had ‘increased confidence’ about giving healthy eating advice after taught sessions,however some also stated that it could be ‘difficult to broach [the] subject with some women’ and expressed concerns about ‘causingoffence’, particularly in relation to providing weight management advice. In terms of nutrition knowledge, despite the nutrition education session, the students still felt that they ‘don’t have enough knowledge’ and ‘need to know more’ about nutrition as a midwife.Some also felt ‘embarrassment’ or ‘hypocritical’ about giving healthy eating advice, due to a lack of nutrition knowledge, or by reflecting on their own poor eating habits.The results from this convenience sample of student midwives corroborates existing findings (2) that there is a gap in the educationand practice of midwives about nutrition during pregnancy. However, delivering pregnancy-specific nutrition knowledge, via a nutrition expert appears to be well received and could help students to develop increasing confidence to communicate healthy eating messages to women in their antenatal care. Further input from other experts may also be needed to help them to approach ‘Difficultconvos’. This feedback provides further insight into how midwifery nutrition education needs to be tailored, to benefit midwivesand improve antenatal care

A qualitative exploration of the experiences of pregnant women living with obesity and accessing antenatal care.

Women are advised to optimise weight before pregnancy. However, many are either already living with overweight or obesity prior to becoming pregnant, increasing the risks for adverse outcomes. Health care professionals (HCP) are responsible for advising women of risks throughout and following pregnancy. However, midwives often find broaching the conversation around maternal obesity difficult. This study explored the experiences of pregnant women living with obesity in accessing antenatal care. Seventeen women completed a semi-structured interview. Transcripts were analysed thematically. Four themes were developed: 1) antenatal care is inconsistent, 2) additional support is needed, 3) women feel judged about their weight, and 4) weight cycling is highly prevalent. Findings suggest that pregnant women living with obesity often experience weight bias from HCPs, feel judged because of their weight and are left feeling confused and overlooked. Women reported inconsistencies in advice and care offered and acknowledged a lack of continuity of care throughout pregnancy. We call for an urgent need for further multidisciplinary training to address the concerns, experiences and needs of pregnant women living with obesity