Yes / Being obese or gaining excessive weight during pregnancy can increase health risks for mother and baby. Adopting a healthy diet and increasing physical activity reduces these risks and has long-term health benefits for women. Despite this, women do not always maintain a healthy lifestyle during pregnancy.
Aim
To explore the factors that encouraged and prevented a diverse group of women to maintain a healthy lifestyle during pregnancy.
Methods
A total of 12 women participated in semi-structured qualitative interviews, underpinned by the theory of planned behaviour. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim then subject to deductive thematic analysis.
Findings
Four themes emerged: women's knowledge of a healthy lifestyle, sociocultural influences, physical health and health professional support. These influenced women's intentions and actual behaviours during pregnancy.
Conclusions
Enhanced health professional advice may motivate women to adopt a healthy lifestyle during pregnancy. This could be through new means such as health technology.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/17041 |
Date | 02 May 2019 |
Creators | Chana, R., Haith-Cooper, Melanie |
Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Article, Accepted manuscript |
Rights | This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in British Journal of Midwifery, copyright © MA Healthcare, after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://doi.org/10.12968/bjom.2019.27.5.297. |
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