Dataset Information

Excess gestational weight gain: an exploration of midwives' views and practice.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Excess gestational weight gain (GWG) can affect the immediate and long term health outcomes of mother and infant. Understanding health providers' views, attitudes and practices around GWG is crucial to assist in the development of practical, time efficient and cost effective ways of supporting health providers to promote healthy GWGs. This study aimed to explore midwives' views, attitudes and approaches to the assessment, management and promotion of healthy GWG and to investigate their views on optimal interventions.

Methods

Midwives working in antenatal care were recruited from one rural and one urban Australian maternity hospital employing purposive sampling strategies to assess a range of practice areas. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 15 experienced midwives using an interview guide and all interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically.

Results

Midwives interviewed exhibited a range of views, attitudes and practices related to GWG. Three dominant themes emerged. Overall GWG was given low priority for midwives working in the antenatal care service in both hospitals. In addition, the midwives were deeply concerned for the physical and psychological health of pregnant women and worried about perceived negative impacts of discussion about weight and related interventions with women. Finally, the midwives saw themselves as central in providing lifestyle behaviour education to pregnant women and identified opportunities for support to promote healthy GWG.

Conclusions

The findings indicate that planning and implementation of healthy GWG interventions are likely to be challenging because the factors impacting on midwives' engagement in the GWG arena are varied and complex. This study provides insights for guideline and intervention development for the promotion of healthy GWG.

SUBMITTER: Willcox JC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3531303 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Excess gestational weight gain: an exploration of midwives' views and practice.

Willcox Jane C JC Campbell Karen J KJ van der Pligt Paige P Hoban Elizabeth E Pidd Deborah D Wilkinson Shelley S

BMC pregnancy and childbirth 20120927

<h4>Background</h4>Excess gestational weight gain (GWG) can affect the immediate and long term health outcomes of mother and infant. Understanding health providers' views, attitudes and practices around GWG is crucial to assist in the development of practical, time efficient and cost effective ways of supporting health providers to promote healthy GWGs. This study aimed to explore midwives' views, attitudes and approaches to the assessment, management and promotion of healthy GWG and to investig ...[more]

PMID: 23013446

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Project description:Weight gain in pregnancy is an essential physiologic adaptation that supports growth and development of a fetus and is distributed among lean mass that includes total body water and fat mass gains. Although gestational weight gain provides a source of energy for the mother and fetus, excess gestational weight gain may underlie reported associations between parity and future metabolic disorders and is linked to postpartum weight retention and insulin resistance. Although weight gain often is proposed as a modifiable variable to mitigate adverse maternal and offspring health outcomes, our knowledge of specific maternal body composition changes with weight gain and the potential metabolic consequences is limited. Furthermore, although gestational weight gain alters maternal body composition, the impact of excess weight gain on fat and lean mass is not well-studied. Understanding the accrual of fat and lean body mass may improve our understanding of the role of excessive gestational weight gain and metabolic dysfunction.The purpose of our study was to quantify the relationship between gestational weight gain and maternal fat and lean body mass accrual and to compare fat and lean body mass accrual according to the 2009 Institute of Medicine Guidelines for Gestational Weight Gain in Pregnancy adherence. We hypothesized that exceeding current weight gain guidelines would be associated with greater fat, compared with lean body, mass accrual.This is a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial of 49 overweight/obese women; all 49 are included in this secondary analysis. Maternal weight and body composition were collected in early (13 0/6 to 16 6/7 weeks gestation) and late (34 0/7 to 36 6/7 weeks gestation) pregnancy with the use of air densitometry. Correlations were drawn between gestational weight gain and change in fat and lean body mass. We compared change in fat and lean body mass by adherence to the 2009 Institute of Medicine Guidelines for Gestational Weight Gain in Pregnancy. Nonparametric tests and chi-square analyses were performed; a probability value of <.05 was significant.Early pregnancy body mass index was 30.3 kg/m(2) (interquartile range [IQR], 28.5-35.2 kg/m(2)); women gained 9.0 kg (IQR, 5.3-13.2 kg). Overweight and obese women were equally likely to gain excess weight (48% vs 35%; P = .6). Weight gain correlated strongly with fat mass change (r = 0.87; P < .001); women with excess vs adequate vs inadequate weight gain had greater fat mass change overall (5.2 [IQR, 4.2-8.1] vs 0.2 [IQR, -0.4-2.2] vs -2.7 [IQR, -5.2- -0.7] kg, respectively; P < .001) and in all pairwise comparisons. Weight gain also correlated with lean body mass change (r = 0.52; P = .001), but women with excess vs adequate weight gain had similar lean body mass change (8.4 [IQR, 7.2-10.1] vs 7.8 [IQR, 6.0-8.7] kg; P = .1).Excess gestational weight gain is associated primarily with maternal fat, but not with lean body mass accrual. Our results may help explain the reason that excess gestational weight gain or fat mass accrual is associated with long-term obesity, metabolic dysfunction, and cardiovascular disease risk.

Project description:BackgroundExcess gestational weight gain (GWG) is an important risk factor for long term obesity in women. However, current interventions aimed at preventing excess GWG appear to have a limited effect. Several studies have highlighted the importance of linking theory with empirical evidence for producing effective interventions for behaviour change. Theorists have demonstrated that goals can be an important source of human motivation and goal setting has shown promise in promoting diet and physical activity behaviour change within non-pregnant individuals. The use of goal setting as a behaviour change strategy has been systematically evaluated within overweight and obese individuals, yet its use within pregnancy has not yet been systematically explored.Aim of reviewTo explore the use of goal setting within healthy lifestyle interventions for the prevention of excess GWG.Data collection and analysisSearches were conducted in seven databases alongside hand searching of relevant journals and citation tracking. Studies were included if interventions used goal setting alongside modification of diet and/or physical activity with an aim to prevent excess GWG. The PRISMA guidelines were followed and a two-stage methodological approach was used. Stage one focused on systematically evaluating the methodological quality of included interventions. The second stage assessed intervention integrity and the implementation of key goal setting components.FindingsFrom a total of 839 citations, 54 full-text articles were assessed for eligibility and 5 studies met the inclusion criteria. Among interventions reporting positive results a combination of individualised diet and physical activity goals, self-monitoring and performance feedback indicators were described as active components.ConclusionInterventions based on goal setting appear to be useful for helping women achieve optimal weight gain during pregnancy. However, overweight and obese women may require more theoretically-designed interventions. Further high quality, theoretically-designed interventions are required to determine the most effective and replicable components for optimal GWG.

Project description:BackgroundPrevious studies have noted traditional physical, demographic, and obstetrical predictors of inadequate or excess gestational weight gain, but the roles of psychological and behavioral factors are not well established. Few interventions targeting traditional factors of gestational weight gain have been successful, necessitating exploration of new domains. The objective of this study was to identify novel psychological and behavioral factors, along with physical, demographic, and obstetrical factors, associated with gestational weight gain that is discordant with the 2009 Institute of Medicine guidelines (inadequate or excess gain).MethodsWe recruited English-speaking women with a live singleton fetus at 8 to 20 weeks of gestation who received antenatal care from 12 obstetrical, family medicine, and midwifery clinics. A questionnaire was used to collect information related to demographic, physical, obstetrical, psychological, and behavioural factors anticipated to be related to weight gain. The association between these factors and total gestational weight gain, classified as inadequate, appropriate, and excess, was examined using stepwise multinomial logistic regression.ResultsOur study population comprised 970 women whose baseline data were obtained at a mean of 14.8 weeks of gestation ±3.4 weeks (standard deviation). Inadequate gestational weight gain was associated with obesity, planned gestational weight gain (below the guidelines or not reported), anxiety, and eating sensibly when with others but overeating when alone, while protective factors were frequent pregnancy-related food cravings and preferring an overweight or obese body size image. Excess gestational weight gain was associated with pre-pregnancy overweight or obese body mass index, planned gestational weight gain (above guidelines), frequent eating in front of a screen, and eating sensibly when with others but overeating when alone, while a protective factor was being underweight pre-pregnancy.ConclusionsIn addition to commonly studied predictors, this study identified psychological and behavioral factors associated with inadequate or excess gestational weight gain. Factors common to both inadequate and excessive gestational weight gain were also identified, emphasizing the multidimensional nature of the contributors to guideline-discordant weight gain.

Dataset Information

Excess gestational weight gain: an exploration of midwives' views and practice.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Excess gestational weight gain: an exploration of midwives' views and practice.

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