Improving Maternal and Infant Nutrition: A Framework for Action

4.18 Just over half of Boards had an obesity strategy although maternal obesitywas not included in them all. However, the majority of Boards had protocols in placefor pregnant women identified as obese where, in most areas, women with a BMI >35 are referred for specialist care.4.19 In the majority of Boards maternity staff had not received any training ongeneral nutrition during pregnancy. There was evidence of some boards focusingattention on specific groups or areas, such as pregnant teenagers and those living inareas of deprivation. There were no examples of specific work to improve thenutrition of pregnant women from particular ethnic groups. In half of the areas,Boards were working with community or voluntary organisations such as communityfood initiatives, healthy living centres or child and family centres, to provide practicaladvice on shopping and budgeting as well as development of cooking skills.The Family Nurse Partnership Programme: reducing inequalities – NHSLothianThe Family Nurse Partnership Programme is an intensive home visiting programme,delivered by nurses, for teenage mothers resident in the city of Edinburgh havingtheir first baby. It starts in early pregnancy until the baby reaches two, and relies ondeveloping a supportive therapeutic relationship between the nurse and the family.Visits are structured and cover a number of domains including personal andenvironmental health. Family Nurses use a wide-range of materials that include corepublic health resources that are available through existing universal services.Maternal nutrition, support for breastfeeding and child nutrition are integralcomponents of the programme and result in parents and carers having theconfidence & skills to implement good feeding and eating patterns. It is not simplyabout changing health behaviours, it is about developing the capacity of the parent tomake choices which will improve the outcomes for them and their child.There is a strong focus on the health and well-being of the child, as well as themother as the primary care giver, however the programme also includes other familymembers where possible and actively engages fathers in order to support them insustaining the aims of the programme. The broad aims of the programme are to:• improve pregnancy outcomes with a focus on maternal health• improve child health & development and future school readiness &achievement and• improve parents’ self sufficiency.The programme’s routinely collected data, which will be used in the externalevaluation, report on a range of infant and maternal health outcomes, includingbreastfeeding initiation and continuation rates and the uptake of Healthy Start.For further information contact: Sally Egan, Associate Director/Child HealthCommissioner, NHS Lothian sally.egan@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk4.20 Although half of respondents reported maternal nutrition was included in theirlocal authority’s Joint Health Improvement Plan, several acknowledged that nutrition