Israeli and British women's wellbeing and eating behaviours in pregnancy and postpartum

ABSTRACT

Objectives: The study had two main objectives: (a) track changes in self-esteem, eating behaviours and body satisfaction from early pregnancy to 24 months postpartum and (b) to compare changes by context (Israel vs. UK) and maternal body mass index (BMI).

Background: High maternal BMI is associated with negative body image and restrained eating, which are experienced differently across cultures.

Methods: 156 pregnant women were recruited from Israel and the UK. Seventy-three women were followed up every six months from early postpartum and until 24 months following birth. Women completed questionnaires assessing self-esteem (RSEQ), body image (BIS/BIDQ) and eating behaviours (DEBQ) and self-reported weights and heights so that BMI could be calculated.

Results: Women with higher BMI had higher levels of self-esteem and were less satisfied with their body. Healthy-weight women were more likely to lose all of their retained pregnancy weight compared to overweight and obese women. Self-esteem, body image and eating behaviours remained stable from pregnancy until 24 months postpartum. No significant differences were found for any measure by context.

Conclusion: BMI was the strongest predictor of self-esteem and body dissatisfaction and a higher BMI predicted less weight loss postpartum.

KEYWORDS:

• Obesity
• self-esteem
• body image
• eating behaviours
• pregnancy
• postpartum

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the women who took part in this study and acknowledge the ‎deeply personal and intimate sharing of experiences that was asked of the participants‎.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.