Midwifery Care for Pregnant Women Who Live with Obesity: A Guide to Explaining the Risks and Providing Practical Advice

This practical guide equips midwives with the skills and knowledge necessary to support pregnant women living with obesity, from communicating meaningfully about weight through to providing evidence-based information about optimising health and making changes.

Beginning with an overview of what living with obesity means for women, this book supports midwives to develop consultation skills and structure their encounters with women for maximum effect. It presents up-to-date, evidence-based information about the impact of obesity on pregnant women and their unborn babies from conception to birth and beyond. Chapters on changing health behaviours, nutrition and physical activity explore how to mitigate these risks and optimise health.

Including reflective questions and case studies, this book is designed for practising and student midwives looking to develop their personalised care and communication skills.

Yvonne M. Greig has been practicing as a midwife since 1991. Since 2000 she has combined academic and clinical practice and has enjoyed practicing in varied roles. In 2011 she became the lead midwife for the Metabolic Antenatal Clinic at the University of Edinburgh/NHS Lothian where care was provided for women who lived with raised BMI. This clinic conducted many research studies that explored the impact of living with obesity. It was here that Yvonne became interested in the professional practice surround the topic and became curious as to why many women had not been told of the risks that living with obesity brought. This curiosity led to doctoral work and has culminated in the publication of this book. Along the way, Yvonne has also worked in Kenya as part of Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine delivering education to healthcare professionals with respect to providing maternity care, she has also liaised with colleagues in Greece and supported the development of a midwifery degree course there and has supported the British University of Egypt with modules concerned with family care and health. Currently Yvonne is a midwifery researcher and lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University.