Supporting women to lose weight after having a baby
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Acceptability of a routine weight management intervention for postnatal women embedded within the child immunisation programme: The views of pregnant women about the PiMMS intervention
IRAS ID
310859
Contact name
A Daley
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Loughborough University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
We previously conducted a trial (PiMMS) to test whether a trial of the effectiveness of a brief weight management intervention was feasible and acceptable to women who had recently given birth. The PiMMS intervention involved postnatal women receiving support from practice nurses as part of the national child immunisation programme, to self-monitor their weight and use an online weight management programme. Whilst women responded well to the intervention, the recruitment of participants was challenging and the recruited sample was small. Alternative recruitment approaches need to be considered before progressing with the research. In the PiMMS study women received their study invitation 4-6 weeks after giving birth. This is a time in which mothers and their families are adjusting to life with a small baby and therefore weight loss may not be considered a priority. Therefore, rather than recruiting women postnatally, an alternative approach is to consider recruiting women antenatally, when women do not have the same distractions and demands on their time. Recruiting antenatally may also be useful because it provides time for women to start to think about weight loss and to mentally prepare for changes to their lifestyle, before the baby arrives, and the intervention starts after the baby at the first baby immunisation appointment. Before embarking on any further research to test the effectiveness of the PiMMS intervention, it is necessary to collect data on the views of pregnant women about the future proposed research. Members of the clinical team at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust will give/send a survey link to a questionnaire to ask pregnant women their views about the PiMMS intervention, and whether they would find it acceptable to be recruited antenatally, to participate in a study such as PiMMS, to help women lose weight after giving birth
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Sheffield Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/YH/0153
Date of REC Opinion
4 Jul 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion