Postpartum Weight Retention

University of Pennsylvania

Status: Completed

Conditions: Hypertension; Obesity; Depression

Treatments: Behavioral: 6 week challenge with 1 year of home visits: health texting, in home exercise supports, social support, healthy eating and feeding classes

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; Industry

Identifiers

NCT02867631

815827

Details and patient eligibility

About

The Postpartum Weight Management Study is a true community-academic collaboration, bringing together Maternity Care Coalition (MCC) staff and the investigator, Dr. Charmaine Smith Wright from the University of Pennsylvania to address the needs of postpartum moms. The project is an innovative intervention to help moms lose weight after the birth of their baby. Helping mothers control their weight during pregnancy and beyond can help both mother and baby avoid later obesity and cardiovascular disease. Although all women are at risk for retaining the weight gained during pregnancy, this problem is amplified for low-income, minority women. The holistic approach aims to prevent postpartum weight retention and increase breastfeeding duration with a multi-component, low-cost intervention that provides: 1) Motivational appeals delivered in text message format; 2) Environmental aides, such as a baby carrier to combine exercise with infant care, and a pedometer to accurately measure exercise at home; 3) Enhanced peer support, including home visits and group classes with other mothers; and 4) Task-oriented professional support from nutrition and lactation experts, who assist women in developing a personalized health plan. The effectiveness of the intervention will be evaluated using a randomized control methodology among clients of MCC.

Enrollment: 175 patients

Sex: Female

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• All women who speak English, and are within six weeks of delivering a live, term, single infants

Exclusion criteria

• Women who have multiple births or preterm (<38 weeks gestation) infants

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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175 participants in 2 patient groups

Enhanced control

No Intervention group

Description:

Regular care as provided by the community based organization from which the convenience sample is recruited with one year of assessments only

Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

6 week challenge with 1 year of home visits: health texting, in home exercise supports, social support, healthy eating and feeding classes

Treatment:

Behavioral: 6 week challenge with 1 year of home visits: health texting, in home exercise supports, social support, healthy eating and feeding classes