Midwives' views and experiences of providing healthy eating advice to pregnant women: a qualitative content analysis of semi-structured interviews

Objective
To explore midwives’ views on how they provide healthy eating education to pregnant women after attending a healthy eating education workshop/webinar.

Methods
A qualitative descriptive approach was utilized. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore the views and experiences of midwives on providing healthy eating education for pregnant women. A purposive sample of six midwives was interviewed face-to-face, and one was conducted by telephone interview. Data were analyzed through qualitative conventional content analysis.

Results
Midwives described their views and experiences of factors that impacted their role in providing healthy eating education. They identified three categories: perceived role of midwives, health literacy, and model of care.

Conclusions
Knowledge and confidence of midwives improved after attending the workshop/webinar on healthy eating education. Findings suggested that midwives perceived their role as important in providing nutrition education. However, time and resources were highlighted as challenges when providing healthy eating education for pregnant women. The availability of health literacy and model of care were significant factors in enabling midwives to adequately provide this education. Midwives acknowledged a need for further education in areas of vegan diet, cultural food preferences for ethnic minority groups, and regular updates on national healthy eating guidelines.