Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

There is limited literature on the availability and use of physical activity (PA) and obesity prevention resources for Aboriginal women during pregnancy, which are important components of prenatal healthcare. We aimed to understand how to improve access/use of resources by Aboriginal women as this population is at increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. This presentation aims to demonstrate how community-based participatory research (CBPR) culminated in the development of a culturally safe resource for pregnant, urban Aboriginal women. We conducted 15 semi-structured interviews with health/service providers that work with pregnant Aboriginal women and three focus groups with 25 pregnant/post-partum urban Aboriginal women. The interviews focused on barriers/facilitators of PA for this population during pregnancy. We engaged in thematic analysis of the data, supported by NVivo10TM software. The interview and focus group participants revealed the need for culturally safe and positively framed PA resources. Specifically, the participants overwhelmingly supported the creation of an online resource ("app") developed with/for Aboriginal women in the Ottawa community. We argue that the use of CBPR in the development of health promotion resources for pregnant Aboriginal women is an integral component in the creation of a culturally safe, and thus, successful end-product. This CBPR effort led to the development of an online healthy living app developed with/for pregnant, urban Aboriginal women in Ottawa. To our knowledge, this is the first application of its kind for the promotion of PA and healthy living during pregnancy for this population.