Women's opinions on being weighed at routine antenatal visits

To assess the opinions of pregnant women regarding their weight gain and to assess the level of satisfaction and anxiety provoked by being weighed in clinic.

Questionnaires were given to women participating in a randomised controlled trial comparing routine weighing in the antenatal clinic with standard care.

A tertiary hospital antenatal clinic in Melbourne, Australia.

In all, 782 healthy pregnant women participated in the randomised controlled trial and 586 responded to the questionnaire.

A questionnaire was offered to all participants at 36 weeks of gestation gauging their satisfaction with their weight gain during pregnancy. The intervention group was asked about their level of satisfaction and anxiety provoked by being weighed in clinic. The control group was asked whether they would have liked to be weighed in clinic. Both groups were questioned about the influences on their weight gain.

Women in both groups were satisfied with their weight gain during pregnancy. Seventy-three percent of women in the intervention group were very comfortable with being weighed in clinic. Approximately half of those in the control group would have favoured being weighed. Twenty-one percent of women said other people influenced their weight gain; mostly family members and two-thirds of them encouraged weight gain. Less than half of the women in the study used weighing scales at home.

Women were satisfied with being weighed antenatally and it did not cause anxiety. Pregnant women accepted the re-introduction of weighing in the antenatal clinic.