Background: The significant number of people overweight (BMI > 25) and obese (BMI >30) have reached an epidemic in the United States which places obesity at the forefront of the nation's public health concerns. Pregnancy and postpartum periods in a woman's life have been identified as stages which can lead to overweight or obesity. The diets of many Americans are high in calories and fat, and low in vegetable and fruit intake, and other low-calorie foods. Diets that are high in vegetable intake are helpful to assist in weight management. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a nutrition intervention on increasing vegetable consumption in breastfeeding and formula feeding postpartum mothers. Postpartum mothers are very busy adjusting and taking care of the baby and the appropriate time to educate mothers on healthy eating is in question. Therefore this study is assessing whether postpartum is a teachable time for mothers to be provided nutrition education. It was expected that at post treatment, both breastfeeding and formula feeding mothers would consume more vegetables, within the context of a healthy diet.
Methods: A total of 47 breastfeeding and formula feeding mothers were recruited for this theory-based dietary intervention. The nutrition education provided to both groups occurred over a four-month period and consisted of one face-to-face counseling session, two follow-up motivational interviews by phone, and three pamphlets mailed to their homes. Strategies for increasing self-efficacy, goal setting, and self-monitoring were part of the curriculum.
Results: Breastfeeding mothers significantly increased their self-efficacy in obtaining, preparing and consuming vegetables (p=0.01) and formula feeding mothers demonstrated a trend towards increasing self- efficacy (p=0.08). Both groups significantly increased intake of total target vegetables (BF, p=0.03; FF p=0.01), other vegetables (p=0.05; FF p=0.04), and all vegetables (BF p=0.01; FF p=0.01), increasing a total of 1.8 servings for breastfeeding and 2.2 servings for formula feeding beyond baseline consumption for all vegetables.
Conclusion: a theory-based dietary intervention is effective in increasing vegetable intake and improving the quality of diet, indicating postpartum is a teachable time for nutrition education.