Healthy Pregnancy Project: Effect of behavioural and lifestyle changes on the amount of weight gain in pregnant women with obesity

The intervention is a one-on-one, face to face patient- led behaviour change intervention delivered by an experienced and trained Health coach and Endocrinologist at five visits during routine pregnancy care, in the maternity clinic. The first intervention assessment will coincide with the first medical review, usually scheduled between 12-18 weeks. Visit 2 will occur between 20-22 weeks, visit 3 ~ 28 weeks, visit 4 ~32 weeks and visit 5 ~36 weeks. The duration of each intervention session is approximately 20-40 minutes. The Healthy Pregnancy Clinic is an evidence-based, more intensive program, based on the principles of HeLPher, targeting reproductive-aged non-pregnant women and adapted for pregnancy by the senior authors. It has evidence for efficacy for weight gain prevention and is designed as a low cost pragmatic simple intervention that is incorporated into routine antenatal care. The program focuses on self-management with skills practiced in goal setting/action planning, problem solving and relapse prevention. The intervention content was developed according to evidence-based guidelines including the Institute of Medicine guidelines for gestational weight gain, Australian dietary guidelines for pregnancy and Australian physical activity guidelines. Participants are provided materials on healthy eating from the Australian dietary guidelines from the NHMRC (readily available from https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/publications/australian-dietary-guidelines#block-views-block-file-attachments-content-block-1). Self-monitoring is encouraged and simple messages on healthy diet and physical activity are provided to mobilise women towards behaviour change, with a personalised approach. Adherence in monitored with an audit of clinical attendance. Participants are not provided with additional support outside of scheduled visits unless specifically required.