Perceived barriers and enablers of physical activity in postpartum women: a qualitative approach.

Maryam Saligheh,Rosanna Rooney,Beverley Mcnamara

doi:10.1186/s12884-016-0908-x

Maryam Saligheh, Rosanna Rooney + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-016-0908-x

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Abstract

BackgroundPostpartum women’s recovery from birth can be assisted through increased physical activity (PA). However, women face substantial barriers to participating in exercise and require support to enable them to benefit from increased PA.MethodsThis study sought to explore women’s beliefs about and experiences of PA and exercise during the 6 weeks to 12 months postpartum period. A cohort of 14 postpartum women from a survey study of the barriers and enablers to exercise participation agreed to take part in interview sessions to provide an in-depth understanding of the women’s perceptions of the postpartum period and their physical activity during this time.ResultsFindings are presented with reference to the social ecological framework and indicate postpartum women face substantial personal and environmental barriers to PA and exercise participation: fatigue, a lack of motivation and confidence, substantial time constraints, lack of access to affordable and appropriate activities and poor access to public transport. In contrast, enablers such as possessing greater social support, in particular partner support, improved PA and exercise participation.ConclusionsThe findings encourage facilitation of exercise through mothers’ groups, mothers’ exercise clubs or postnatal classes suggesting behavioral and social change is needed. Interaction between individuals, community, organizations and policy makers is required. In addition, the provision of specifically tailored and appropriate exercise programs could potentially enable increased PA in postpartum women, thereby improving their health.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12884-016-0908-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Highlights

Postpartum women’s recovery from birth can be assisted through increased physical activity (PA)
An in-depth qualitative approach allows women’s own voices to be acknowledged and gives insight into the particular contexts in which new mothers participate, or not, in exercise. The aim of this qualitative study was to provide an in-depth understanding of women’s beliefs about PA and exercise participation during the postpartum period by incorporating the social-ecological framework. This qualitative study was conducted with a subset of postpartum women who had previously completed the postpartum life style and physical activity survey which measured the facilitation of exercise participation, barriers and enablers, in childbearing years [2]
The analysis identified general concepts related to postpartum life as well as specific issues related to the facilitation of exercise such as mother’s groups, community related classes, and barriers and enablers to physical activity participation

Summary

Introduction

Postpartum women’s recovery from birth can be assisted through increased physical activity (PA). Studies indicate that PA declines during pregnancy [8, 9] and may remain low Barriers to PA can be divided into environmental and personal factors, and postpartum studies have suggested the importance of considering both factors prior to the implementation of any exercise program [1, 8]. Personal factors are those related to the mothers’ own circumstances, Saligheh et al BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth (2016) 16:131 such as income and the number of children under her care [5, 9, 14, 15]. The predominant effect of these barriers in restraining exercise participation is suggested in several studies [1, 8, 17]

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