Abstract
Objectives
Pregnant women prioritize the health of their pregnancy, and weight gain contributes to the pregnancy’s health. Women encounter different messages about gestational weight gain from various sources that can be confusing. This study aimed to increase our understanding of the processes influencing how women experience the gestational weight gain advice they receive.
Methods
Grounded theory methodology was chosen. Women receiving prenatal care in a primary care setting were invited to participate in one-on-one interviews.
Results
All fifteen participants had high educational attainment, fourteen were Caucasian, and five had an elevated pre-pregnancy body mass index. Six interconnected themes emerged from the data: (1) striving to have a healthy pregnancy; (2) experiencing influences; (3) feeling worried; (4) Managing ambiguity; (5) trusting a source of information; and (6) feeling relief.
Conclusions for Practice
Physicians are perceived by pregnant women to be a source of trusted information about gestational weight gain and are therefore in a strategic position to help women achieve healthy weight gain during pregnancy.
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Acknowledgements
This work was in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Ph.D. in Family Medicine at Western University in London, Canada. Dr. Moira Stewart was funded by the Dr. Brian W. Gilbert Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Primary Health Care Research (2003–2017). Dr. Bridget Ryan was funded through an Early Career Award from the Patient-Centred Innovations for Persons with Multimorbidity (PACE in MM) Community-Based Primary Health Care Innovation Team, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Signature Initiative (2014–2018). Dr. Sarah McDonald is supported by a Canada Research Chair in Maternal and Infant Obesity Prevention and Intervention.
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Appendix 1: Interview Guide
Appendix 1: Interview Guide
I: Welcome and Instructions to Participant
Thank you again for taking the time to participate in this interview. The purpose of this interview is to help me explore what you think about the advice that you have received about how much weight you should gain during your pregnancy. This interview will take about 1 h. There are no right or wrong answers. As a reminder, I will be audio taping this session but your name will not be connected to the recording—I will give a number to your file.
Do you have any questions about the study? If not, I will begin recording.
II: Introductory Questions
To begin with, let me ask you:
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How important do you think weight gain in pregnancy is for your health while you go through your pregnancy? Probe: Why is that?
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How do you think that the weight you gain in pregnancy affects your health?
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How important do you think weight gain in pregnancy is for your baby’s health? Probe: Why is that?
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How do you think that the weight you gain in pregnancy affects your baby’s health?
III: Guiding Questions for Discussion
We get information from so many different sources—friends, family, neighbours, co-workers, books, social media, prenatal classes, Internet etc. I would like to talk about all those sources from which you might have received information about how much weight you should gain during your pregnancy.
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Tell me about the sort of advice you would like to receive about how much weight you should gain during your pregnancy.
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Tell me about the sort of advice you have received about how much weight you should gain during your pregnancy. Probe for information regarding advice from family physician or another clinician if it is not spontaneously mentioned.
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What were the sources from which you received advice about weight gain in pregnancy? Probe: What did each source tell you about how much weight you should gain (and did they explain to you why)?
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What did you think of that advice? Probe: What made you decide to follow or not to follow or believe that advice? What kinds of difficulty did you come up against with your decision?
Some women come from families or communities that have strong ideas about what is good for your health and the baby’s health during pregnancy. I am interested in hearing about whether that is the case for you.
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Tell me about your family’s/community’s ideas or beliefs about weight gain in pregnancy.
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How do those beliefs agree with the information about weight gain in pregnancy that you obtained from other sources?
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What do you think that people who give you advice about how much weight you should gain during your pregnancy should know? Probe: Why is that?
IV: Conclusion
Is there anything else that you would like to share with me? If not, thank you very much for taking the time to participate in this study. Your comments on the advice that women receive about weight gain in pregnancy are very valuable to this work.
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Piccinini-Vallis, H., Brown, J.B., Ryan, B.L. et al. Women’s Views on Advice About Weight Gain in Pregnancy: A Grounded Theory Study. Matern Child Health J 25, 1717–1724 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-021-03222-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-021-03222-3