Interventions for weight management in postpartum women

To report the results of a comprehensive review of published intervention studies to identify the best evidence available for guiding weight management interventions in postpartum women.

Electronic searches were conducted of three electronic databases: Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature; Medline; and the Science Citation Index, Expanded, in the Web of Science from 1994 to May 2007. Keyword searches were conducted using the terms obesity, obese, overweight, postpartum, pregnancy weight, and weight management in postpartum women.

Six studies were selected that met the inclusion criteria of testing interventions and one that reported preintervention planning and targeted a weight management intervention for postpartum women.

All six interventions showed significant impact with diet and exercise or some combination on body composition in the targeted sample of women.

The strengths of previous studies include an emphasis on precision in outcome measures and experimental conditions; limitations were that the theoretical basis for the interventions was frequently omitted and limited attention given to the cultural, social, and contextual factors established in descriptive research.

Interventions need to target women early in their childbearing years to have the most significant long-term impact.