A qualitative exploration of pregnant women’s awareness and utilization of the Australian dietary guidelines for pregnancy

PURPOSE: The Australian dietary guidelines for pregnancy advise on optimal maternal intake. However, previous literature demonstrates suboptimal adherence to guidelines, with no evidence of the experience of sourcing nor uptake of the dietary guidelines among pregnant women. We aimed to explore pregnant women's knowledge of nutrition information, including the current Australian dietary guidelines for pregnancy. METHODS: Nineteen pergnant women were recruited using convenient sampling. Semi-structured interviews were analysed thematically, underpinned by the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation and Behaviour (COM-B) model and Theoretical Domains Framework. RESULTS: Three themes were identified. Women showed limited awareness and/or utilization of the dietary guidelines for pregnancy, partially due to the inconsistent opportunity to receive guidelines from maternity healthcare providers. When seeking advice independently, women's capability to acquire pregnancy-related food knowledge was primarily dedicated to food safety and to identifying reliable advice from other non-evidence-based information. Women's motivation to utilize the dietary guidelines for pregnancy is low, with the perception that the broad recommendations may not meet their diverse, individual nutritional needs. CONCLUSIONS: To optimize pregnancy nutritional intake, multi-disciplinary efforts should be made to increase the awareness of the dietary guidelines for pregnancy and to support the delivery and uptake of dietary advice among pregnant women.