Perinatal Weight Management: A Qualitative Stakeholder Investigation of Healthcare Professionals and Service Users

AIM: Maternal obesity is a public health challenge, increasing the risk of maternal and perinatal complications, and is a significant predictor of long-term maternal and child weight. Despite guidelines around weight management and antenatal care, efforts to promote perinatal weight management have encountered limited success, with more evidence needed to understand how best to design and target interventions. This paper reports the experiences and potential approaches for perinatal weight management, from the perspectives of postpartum women and healthcare providers. DESIGN: Qualitative. METHODS: One-to-one interviews and focus groups were held with postpartum women and a broad range of healthcare providers involved in perinatal care, including midwives, health visitors, dieticians, general practitioners, and obstetricians. RESULTS: Fourteen individual interviews and three focus groups were conducted. Three interconnected themes were identified across all stakeholder groups. First, recognition of an unmet collective need to address perinatal weight, complicated by the sensitivity of the topic. Second, challenges to addressing weight management across the perinatal period, including confusing and often conflicting messages. Third, opportunities for a multi-stakeholder approach to weight management were suggested. Stakeholder recommendations included a local level approach, consistent messaging, positive narratives, and improved training to enhance multi-agency collaboration on providing perinatal weight management support to address the needs of local communities. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings highlight opportunities for a multi-stakeholder approach to weight management which include shifting the narrative from punitive weight loss messages to proactive adoption of healthy lifestyle behaviours across the family unit, the timing of advice, and targeted training of those who deliver it.