Abstract
Maternal nutrition during pregnancy affects the health of the mother and baby. The objective of this paper is to describe the maternal nutrition education offered by midwives to women attending an antenatal clinic. The study also examined the resources, support, and the needs of the midwives in offering the nutrition education. Six in-depth interviews with the midwives, six direct structured observations of the group education, and 12 one-on-one interactions of midwife and pregnant women observations were completed. The interviews and field observation notes were typed and analyzed using the latent content analysis. The emerging themes were the maternal nutrition education and the education needs of the midwives. The content and presentation of maternal nutrition were inadequate in scope and depth. The maternal nutrition education was offered to only pregnant women attending the first antenatal care visit. The routine antenatal education session lasted 45 minutes to 1 hour, covering a variety of topics, but the nutritional component was allotted minimal time (5–15 minutes). The organization, mode of delivery, guidelines, resources, and service environment were extremely deficient. The relevance of appropriate weight gain during pregnancy, guidelines for healthy habits, avoidance of substance abuse, and nutrition precautions in special circumstances was missing in the nutrition presentation. Information, maternal nutrition education resources, infrastructure, and health system gaps were identified. There was an inefficient nutrition education offered to the pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic. As means of promoting effective nutrition education, appropriate in-service training, mentorship, and support for the midwives are needed, as well as infrastructural and resource provision.
Highlights
Pregnancy is a time of intensified nutritional vulnerability, and the nutritional status of women before and during pregnancy can have a substantial influence on fetal and maternal outcomes [1]. e importance of maternal nutrition to fetal development and birth outcomes has been investigated [2,3,4]
Erefore, this paper documents the characteristics of the maternal nutrition education offered to pregnant women during the antenatal care (ANC) visits and the challenges encountered by the midwives
A qualitative description approach was used based on the fact that there were high levels of uncertainty about the current education intervention and very little existing research on prenatal nutrition education in Uganda and at the same time limited resources to conduct the study [23]. e authors conducted six in-depth interviews with midwives who were involved in the direct care of the pregnant women at the Antenatal care (ANC) clinic
Summary
Maternal Nutrition Education Provided by Midwives: A Qualitative Study in an Antenatal Clinic, Uganda. E objective of this paper is to describe the maternal nutrition education offered by midwives to women attending an antenatal clinic. E study examined the resources, support, and the needs of the midwives in offering the nutrition education. E maternal nutrition education was offered to only pregnant women attending the first antenatal care visit. Information, maternal nutrition education resources, infrastructure, and health system gaps were identified. Ere was an inefficient nutrition education offered to the pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic. As means of promoting effective nutrition education, appropriate in-service training, mentorship, and support for the midwives are needed, as well as infrastructural and resource provision
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