Grant: Operating Grant

Most pregnant women gain more weight than recommended by the national guidelines. Too much weight gain increases mothers' risks during pregnancy (high blood pressure, diabetes and cesarean section) and after pregnancy (obesity). Extra weight gain puts the baby at risk, too, including for being obese as children. Many unsuccessful studies have tried to help women gain the right amount of weight during pregnancy. Most of the studies do not take into account psychological status of women. We completed a thorough review of all the published literature to figure out which psychological factors should be studied. Our team involves an obstetrician, nurse, midwife, family doctor, statistician, expert in measurement and psychologists. We propose two studies. Study 1: 1042 women between 12 and 20 weeks of pregnancy will be invited to answer a questionnaire on psychological and other factors that affect weight gain. We will obtain information from their medical charts about how much weight they gained during pregnancy. Study 1's goal is to understand which factors impact weight gain during pregnancy, and if some of these factors are found together in subgroups. We will repeat the questionnaire at 32 weeks to see if the factors are stable over pregnancy. We will invite women to participate in Study 2: In-depth phone or in person interviews will be used to see what helps and what prevents women from gaining weight within the guidelines. We mainly want to know what pregnant women think are acceptable and suitable strategies to gain weight within the guidelines. We expect we will need 40-50 women for the 2nd Study. We are using novel ways to study excess pregnancy weight gain. This research is important as more than half of Canadian women who birth each year gain too much weight, which affects a large number of women and infants (about 200,000 each).