Abstract

Some lifestyle factors like using substance use, not attending antenatal care, having an increased weight, and sleeping on your back, together with many other influences, have been considered to raise women’s odds of experiencing a negative outcome during pregnancy. We interviewed 18 women who have had uncomplicated pregnancies and healthy babies to explore their experience of behaviour change during pregnancy, and their experiences of receiving education and information about their health habits during antenatal care. For most women in this study, changing their behaviours when they became pregnant was not challenging as they all had favourable situations to do so. Most women had very limited knowledge about what stillbirth meant and there was never a connection between behavioural risk factors and potential negative consequences over the pregnancy. Our study suggest that stillbirth is not spoken about in antenatal care. However, most women felt that it would be useful to receive this information to make sure they remained as healthy as possible during their pregnancies. This study shows that providing more accurate and specific information to women about their health habits might contribute to improve their overall pregnancy health and reduce the chances of undesired outcomes.