Introduction:
This study aimed to explore how birth care professionals promote health behavior for pregnant women in vulnerable circumstances.
Methods:
A questionnaire was distributed online from February to June 2023 among all primary care midwifery practices (n=144) and obstetric units (n=15) in the West and Southwest regions of the Netherlands. Descriptive statistics were used to present the results.
Results:
The questionnaire was completed by 106 birth care professionals (67%). Almost all respondents (95%) found it important to discuss health behavior with pregnant women in vulnerable circumstances, and 89% reported doing so with all or the majority of women in vulnerable circumstances. Discussing partners’ health behavior with the partners themselves was less frequently reported as important (84%), and only 40% of respondents reported discussing this with all or most partners. Most respondents reported they provided personalized information about smoking, alcohol intake, drug use, healthy diet, folic acid, use of medication, and being overweight. Only 32% reported providing information about chronic stress. Most respondents agreed that it is important to give attention to the identity of pregnant women in vulnerable circumstances (83%) and to their autonomy (91%) when discussing health behavior, but lack of time is a barrier to discussing this. Only 30% of the respondents found it difficult to discuss health behavior with pregnant women in vulnerable circumstances. Still, 57% of the respondents indicated that they (might) need additional knowledge, and 53% indicated that they did not have sufficient education in this area.
Conclusions:
Birth care professionals recognize the importance of discussing health behaviors with pregnant women in vulnerable circumstances. However, future research should explore how birth care professionals can be better educated to discuss health behavior, including chronic stress, with pregnant women and their partners in a timeefficient manner.