Objective: a variety of services to support women to undertake weight management behaviours during pregnancy have recently been implemented as a means to reduce the risks to mother and infant. In the UK, midwives lead the care of the majority of pregnant women and are seen as the ideal source of referral into antenatal services. However, midwives have reported concerns regarding raising the topic of weight with obese women and negative referral experiences have been cited as a reason not to engage with a service. This study explored midwives' experiences of referring women to one of two antenatal weight management services.
Design: qualitative, cross-sectional interview and focus group study, with data analysed thematically.
Setting: midwifery teams in the West Midlands, England.
Participants: midwives responsible for referring to either a home-based, one to one service (N=12), or a community-based, group service (N=11).
Findings: four themes emerged from the data. Participants generally had a positive View of the service, but their Information needs were not fully met, as they wanted more detail about the service and feedback regarding the women they had referred. Approaches to referral differed, with some participants referring all women who met the eligibility criteria, and some offering women a choice to be referred or not. Occasionally the topic was not raised at all when a negative reception was anticipated. Reasons for poor uptake of the services included pragmatic barriers, and their perception of women's lack of interest in weight management.
Key Conclusions: midwives' differing views on choice and gaining agreement to refer means referral practices vary, which could increase the risk that obese women have inequitable access to weight management services. However, midwives' confidence in the services on offer may be increased with more detailed information about the service and feedback on referrals, which would additionally act as prompts to refer.
Implications For Practice: weight management services need to improve communication with their referral agents and try to overcome practical and psychosocial barriers to uptake. It would be beneficial to develop a shared understanding of the concept of 'informed choice' specifically regarding referral to health promotion services among midwives. Training which demonstrates effective methods of sensitively introducing a weight management service to obese women may increase midwives' confidence to consistently include this in their practice. These measures may improve women's engagement with services which have the potential to reduce the risks associated with maternal obesity.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.midw.2016.10.006 | DOI Listing |
Diabetol Metab Syndr
January 2025
Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University,Internal Medicine Diabetes and Endocrinology Department, Cairo, Egypt.
For patients considering bariatric surgery, it is essential to have clear answers to common questions to ensure the success of the procedure. Patients should understand that surgery is not a quick fix but a tool that must be complemented by lifestyle changes, including dietary adjustments and regular physical activity. The procedure carries potential risks that should be weighed against the potential benefits.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Bioinformatics
January 2025
Department of Surgery, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Gastric Neoplasms, Shanghai Institute of Digestive Surgery, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Background: Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) has transformed biological research by offering new insights into cellular heterogeneity, developmental processes, and disease mechanisms. As scRNA-seq technology advances, its role in modern biology has become increasingly vital. This study explores the application of deep learning to single-cell data clustering, with a particular focus on managing sparse, high-dimensional data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Pregnancy Childbirth
January 2025
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, University of Utah Health, 30 N. Mario Capecchi Dr., Level 5 South, Salt Lake City, UT, 84132, USA.
Background: Fetal growth restriction (FGR) is a leading risk factor for stillbirth, yet the diagnosis of FGR confers considerable prognostic uncertainty, as most infants with FGR do not experience any morbidity. Our objective was to use data from a large, deeply phenotyped observational obstetric cohort to develop a probabilistic graphical model (PGM), a type of "explainable artificial intelligence (AI)", as a potential framework to better understand how interrelated variables contribute to perinatal morbidity risk in FGR.
Methods: Using data from 9,558 pregnancies delivered at ≥ 20 weeks with available outcome data, we derived and validated a PGM using randomly selected sub-cohorts of 80% (n = 7645) and 20% (n = 1,912), respectively, to discriminate cases of FGR resulting in composite perinatal morbidity from those that did not.
J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol
January 2025
Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Via Mario Negri 2, 20156, Milano, Italy.
Background: The Observed Individual Means (OIM) methodology, based on the non-parametric bootstrap, is usually employed to perform basic probabilistic dietary chronic exposure assessment, and assumes independence and identical distribution of occurrence data within food category. However, this assumption may not be valid if several expected distributions of occurrence can be a priori identified within food category. Moreover, OIM assumes each analysed food sample to equally contribute to mean occurrence, as information about relevance of each food item cannot be incorporated into exposure assessment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
January 2025
LCEA Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences, Mohammed Premier University, Oujda, Morocco.
In the current investigation, the efficiency inhibition of two newly synthesized bi-pyrazole derivatives, namely 2,3-bis[(bis((1 H-pyrazol-1-yl) methyl) amino)] pyridine (Tetra-Pz-Ortho) and 1,4-bis[(bis((1 H-pyrazol-1-yl) methyl) amino)] benzene (Tetra-Pz-Para) for corrosion of carbon steel (C&S) in 1 M HCl medium was evaluated. A Comparative study of inhibitor effect of Tetra-Pz-Ortho and Tetra-Pz-Para was conducted first using weight loss method and EIS (Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy) and PDP (Potentiodynamic Polarisation) techniques. Tetra-Pz-Ortho and Tetra-Pz-Para had a maximum inhibition efficacy of 97.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!