The Role Of Education In Preventing Overweight During Pregnancy: A Systematic Review

An increase in the pregnant woman's weight is an important change during her pregnancy, which is caused by changes in the uterus and its contents (fetus, placenta, and amniotic fluid) and metabolic changes in the mother's body such as accumulation of fat and liquids. Lifestyle change toward industrialization along with changes in nutritional behaviors and physical activities has increased the prevalence of obesity during pregnancy. Obesity during pregnancy is associated with maternal and neonatal complications, and it is necessary and important to prevent obesity during this period. In this regard, the present review study was carried out in order to control and prevent obesity during pregnancy by examining interfering factors such as education and educational methods that are based on models of changing behavior. Electronic search was carried out using Persian keywords (pregnancy, overweight) and English ones (obesity, weight change) from Iran Medex, SID, Google Scholar, Pubmed, and Scopus over the period of March 21, 2014 to August 22, 2014. After the databanks were searched and large number of articles (532 articles: 50 in Persian and 482 in English) were extracted based on their title and abstract and examined, out of which 500 articles were crossed out because they had not used educational intervention in order to prevent overweight during pregnancy and they were descriptive studies. An exact number of 32 articles were examined, out of which 20 were crossed out because education had not been their major intervention. Finally, 12 articles were included in the present study. The results of the present study indicated that theory-based education and educational models such as theories of self-regulation, self-efficacy, and social support, and health belief model played an effective role in controlling gestational weight and changing lifestyle and pregnant women's behaviors.