Findley, A, Smith, DM, Hesketh, K et al. (1 more author) (2020) Exploring womens' experiences and decision making about physical activity during pregnancy and following birth: a qualitative study. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 20 (1). 54. ISSN 1471-2393
Abstract
Background
Physical activity (PA) tends to decline during pregnancy, and remains low in the early postpartum period, despite the known physical and psychological benefits. This study aimed to explore: (1) women’s experiences of PA during pregnancy and following birth; and (2) decision-making processes related to PA during this time.
Methods
Semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with 16 women who were either pregnant or had recently given birth. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis.
Results
There were two over-arching themes: (1) ownership of body, which consisted of the sub-themes: others try to take ownership, important to maintain fitness into pregnancy and motherhood, expectations of PA, and pressure to conform; and (2) unknown territory, which consisted of the sub-themes: engaging in PA with caution, and unclear advice. Decision-making about PA during pregnancy was influenced by: pressure from others who felt responsible to protect the woman from coming to harm; pressure from social media to lose weight postpartum; participant’s beliefs about the benefits of maintaining fitness and participants expectations of how active they thought they would be able to be during pregnancy. Participants felt that pregnancy was an ‘unknown territory’ in terms of the unfamiliar feelings in their body and the inability to continually monitor their baby for reassurance of baby’s health. Advice received from midwives was often lacking, or not tailored to the individual. Advice from friends and family was often regarded as incorrect, but still caused doubt and fear of PA during pregnancy.
Conclusions
These findings contribute to the understanding of women’s experiences of PA during pregnancy and post-partum, and their decision-making processes about PA during pregnancy. Developing accurate and tailored advice as part of midwifery care, that considers the physical and psychological aspects of engaging in PA during pregnancy, will help to ensure that women are supported to make informed decisions about their PA behaviour.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s). 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
Keywords: | Physical activity; Pregnancy; Decision making; Postpartum; Qualitative; Thematic analysis |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Psychology (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 12 May 2021 13:23 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 22:39 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | BMC |
Identification Number: | 10.1186/s12884-019-2707-7 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:173912 |