Eating Behaviors in Postpartum: A Qualitative Study of Women with Obesity

In postpartum, women experience major changes in their lives; they are forced to deal with new internal and external demands for attention and care for themselves and the baby. Postpartum feeding also suffers changes in this stage of life, because women find more barriers to healthy eating, which can put them at greater risk of overweight or obesity. This is a qualitative study, through in-depth semi-directed interviews in an intentional sample with postpartum women with obesity, closed by saturation and qualitative content analysis. Sixteen women were included. Three categories emerged from this analysis: (1) from pregnancy to postpartum: changes in body and eating behavior; (2) eating to fill the void of helplessness felt during the postpartum period; and (3) breastfeeding and baby feeding. Women with obesity eat to relieve unpleasant feelings during the postnatal period. The postpartum period is an opportune moment to introduce long-term changes in the eating behaviors and mental wellbeing of these women. Healthcare teams need to restructure to provide more focused follow-up care for women with obesity during the postnatal period in terms of their physical and emotional health.