Pregnancy - A Special Time for Nutrition: Supporting Healthy Moms and Babies

Pregnancy - A Special Time for Nutrition

This educational booklet provides pregnant and lactating women with appropriate health and nutrition information. An eating plan based on the most current nutrition guidelines and the Food Guide Pyramid ensures they consider dietary changes to support their own health and that of their baby. It addresses a variety of concerns common to nearly all pregnant women and new mothers. The program is available in English and Spanish.

The booklet can be used in three different ways:

• Health professional goes through it one-on-one in an individual counseling setting
• Health professional goes through it in a group class
• Client goes through it on their own since it is written in a self-instructional format

Methodology and Results

As with all of Dairy Council's nutrition programs, Pregnancy - A Special Time for Nutrition uses an individualized learning model to help instill positive lifestyle changes. A unique feature of this program is that it uses engaging questions to draw in the reader and enhance the personal relevance.

Six observations were completed:

• Two - private practice physicians (OBGYNs
• Three - Managed Health Care facilities (HMO)
• One - Women, Infants and Children (WIC), a governmental agency

The private practice physicians and a HMO nurse instructed patients on nutrition during an initial prenatal appointment. Two of the HMO sites and the WIC clinic conducted group classes. These sites were similar in their desire to personally counsel their clients on nutrition.

The health professionals in these case studies had all used a previous version of Dairy Council's pregnancy program, so they were able to make comparisons. Here is what they said about the revised program:

• "The new program is wonderful, specifically the color, the amount of information and the content."
• "Individualized, personalized booklets provide valuable information for the duration of the pregnancy- aiding retention and follow through."
• "This booklet is the best; it meets 100% of the practice's needs for nutrition."
• "The program is very practical to use in a class situation because it facilitates discussion and involvement of pregnant women to improve their diet."
• "Health professionals have a great value for the Spanish version of the program."

Discussion

These case studies indicated that health professionals successfully use Pregnancy- A special time for nutrition in a multitude of ways. It is primarily delivered during the first trimester and frequently health professionals referred patients back to the program throughout their pregnancy to address their concerns.

One benefit of the program is that it can be adapted to the health professional's teaching style. Some preferred to have patients read the book and then review the most pertinent content and this personalization motivated pregnant women to improve their diet. Others highlighted key areas and had patients read the remainder of the program at their leisure. Regardless of the intervention technique, the reader is encouraged to make good dietary choices throughout the program. These changes should begin early in pregnancy and continue through lactation. Engaging questions such as "If pregnancy is so great, why do I feel so bad?" are used as subheadings throughout the program. The feel of personal relevancy of the questions and answer format is key toward motivating change.

Conclusions

We were pleased to learn that this new program, Pregnancy - A Special Time for Nutrition, is well-liked by health professionals. Our observers concluded the ideal implementation method to be one-on-one instruction, followed closely by group instruction. The program design makes it easy for health professionals to highlight sections they find most relevant in an easy-to-use format.

Our study of the long term changes attributable to the use of this program will be completed by Summer 2002, however, preliminary feedback from health professionals give this program high marks.

If you are a health professional in California, you may order Pregnancy, A Special Time for Nutrition free of charge. Please submit this electronic order form or call 877.324.7901.

Click here to learn more about ordering materials from outside California.