Healthy eating in pregnancy, education for midwives: A pre-post intervention study

INTRODUCTION Midwives have an important role in providing education in healthy eating to pregnant women, which is essential for maternal and foetal health and wellbeing. Importantly, midwives require continual professional development to ensure they provide up-to-date education. METHODS A pre-post intervention study utilised a purpose-designed questionnaire to collect data at three time points. Forty-four midwives completed the pre education questionnaire, 29 of these midwives attended the education intervention (workshop/ webinar) and completed the immediately after questionnaire. Nineteen midwives then completed a questionnaire at 6-8 weeks follow-up. The study aimed to evaluate midwives' knowledge and level of confidence to discuss healthy eating in pregnancy. RESULTS Education in healthy eating improved midwives' knowledge and level of confidence, which were maintained for six to eight weeks. The mean difference of total scores on knowledge and confidence between pre and immediately after education questionnaires showed a statistically significant improvement in nutrition knowledge (4.93 +/- 1.62 vs 7.55 +/- 1.55; p<0.001) and confidence level (22.05 +/- 6.87 vs 31.48 +/- 7.47; p<0.001). In terms of the mode of education, there was a significant increase in total knowledge scores for midwives who attended a workshop compared to a webinar. CONCLUSIONS Overall, healthy eating education improved midwives' knowledge and confidence immediately after receiving education and also at 6-8 weeks follow-up. This study is unique as it evaluated midwives' knowledge and level of confidence at 6-8 weeks post education. This study concludes that midwives benefited from receiving further knowledge on cultural food choices, eating behaviours, and dental care.