Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Stages Of Change In The Trajectory Of Postpartum Weight Self-Management, Jennifer M. Ohlendorf

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Objective

To identify women's patterns of readiness to engage in weight self-management behaviors during the postpartum period.

Design

Prospective, longitudinal design with repeated measures, guided by the transtheoretical model of behavior change (TTM).

Setting

A tertiary perinatal center in an urban setting in the midwestern United States with approximately 3,000 births annually.

Participants

One hundred ninety-one (191) adult postpartum women.

Methods

Participants were surveyed in person during their postpartum hospitalizations, and by telephone at 4 and 8 weeks postpartum using the Stages of Change for Weight Management (SOCWM) and the Decisional Balance for Weight Management (DBWM) tools.

Results

There …

Weight-Management Information Needs Of Postpartum Women, Jennifer Ohlendorf, Marianne E. Weiss, Polly Ryan

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose: To describe the weight loss information-seeking behaviors of postpartum women.

Study Design and Methods: The study is part of a larger longitudinal descriptive study of factors associated with women's self-management of their gestational weight loss after birth. Participants answered questions about weight loss information they planned to access, had received, wished they had received, and desired sources of information. A total of 250 women were enrolled during the postpartum hospital stay; 179 completed a 4-month follow-up.

Results: A large portion of the sample (53.3% of normal weight women, 79% of overweight women, and 81.4% obese women) identified plans to …