Concerns, attitudes, beliefs and information seeking practices with respect to nutrition-related issues: a qualitative study in French pregnant women

Abstract

BackgroundFrom a life course perspective, pregnancy leads to a rise in nutrition awareness and an increase in information flow in favour of adopting healthier eating behaviours. This qualitative study was designed to better understand the determinants of eating behaviours in French pregnant women by focusing on their concerns, attitudes and beliefs and their nutrition-related information seeking practices.MethodsSeven focus groups were conducted, involving a total of 40 French pregnant women. An inductive thematic approach, adapted from the grounded theory, was adopted to analyse the data. Two major themes were identified: eating behaviour and nutrition-related information behaviour.ResultsThe eating behaviour theme was divided into four sub-themes using the attribution theory. Three external causes affected the eating behaviour of pregnant women (food restrictions, physiological changes and weight gain), and led to frustration and a perceived loss of control. By contrast the adoption of a healthier diet was perceived as internal by pregnant women, and resulted in self-fulfilment and empowerment regarding the health and the well-being of their baby and themselves, and their weight gain management. Greater attention was paid to nutrition-related information obtained from healthcare providers, the social environment and the mass media. Information was passively absorbed or actively sought by pregnant women, but most was perceived as contradictory, which led to confusion.ConclusionPregnancy is accompanied by a rise in nutrition awareness, substantiated by eating behaviour modifications due to external and internal causes. However, conflicts between and within information sources result in confusion that can limit the adoption of healthier eating behaviour.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12884-016-1078-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Perceptions of a Father's Role during a Couple's First Pregnancy

“…Pregnant women in this study modified their food choices, by eating less fruits and vegetables and more convenience items, due to physiological changes, pregnancy-related symptoms, or the behavior of their partners, which is consistent with previous studies (Bianchi et al, 2016;Goodrich et al, 2013;Graham et al, 2013;Hromi-Fiedler et al, 2016;Lucas et al, 2016;Reyes et al, 2013). The results showed that mothers who lived with a spouse were affected by their spouses' healthy and unhealthy behaviors and vice versa.…”

“…High social support from a partner is one factor that could enhance prenatal intake of produce (fruits and vegetables) if these foods are eaten together, or the knowledge of how to cook these foods is exchanged (Goodrich et al, 2013;Hromi-Fiedler et al, 2016). Indeed, women have been reported to be more receptive to cooking knowledge when it comes from a family member (Bianchi et al, 2016). This is because human behavior is influenced by one's partner; for example, pregnant women feel self-conscious about unhealthy eating habits when their partners witness these habits (Graham et al, 2013).…”

“…Pregnancy is a unique life-cycle phase in which healthy food choices are of the utmost importance, as the mother's diet quality has repercussions for both her and her infant's health (House & Coveney, 2013;Hromi-Fiedler et al, 2016;Lucas, Charlton, & Yeatman, 2014;Reyes, Klotz, & Herring, 2013). Women generally want to make healthier choices than they did before this major life event, and they tend to make some changes to their usual habits (Bianchi et al, 2016). Despite many women understanding the recommendations and intention to improve their diet, pregnant women could face some barriers to providing a healthy environment for their developing baby, such as restrictions on usual activities (Hromi-Fiedler et al, 2016).…”

Women’s perceptions of discussions about gestational weight gain with health care providers during pregnancy and postpartum: a qualitative study

“…Our results support and extend the results from the USA [26] in which researchers conducted interviews with 24 overweight and obese women and found that discussions about GWG with HCPs did not occur but that women would like to have these discussions. Focus groups with pregnant women in France also noted that women look to their HCP for direction about health, eating and appropriate weight gain [27]. …”

What the Health? Information Sources and Maternal Lifestyle Behaviors (Preprint)

“…However, the population sizes were generally small (n = 17-60) [8,12,13,18,20,23], and information sources were rarely the main outcome [8,12,16,[19][20][21][22][23]. Three studies had moderate methodological quality and sufficient population sizes (n = 350-368) [7,9,24].…”