Innovative clinical pathways for obese pregnant women: design and feasibility of the Padua project (North-Eastern Italy)

Abstract

Background: Obesity during pregnancy can adversely affect the wellbeing of the mother and the newborn, as well as the latter's long-term health. Preconception counseling, careful prenatal management, and strict follow-up during pregnancy are, therefore, essential for obese fertile women in order to prevent the negative effects of obesity.

Methods: In this setting, we developed a project that consisted in creating an integrated network of primary, secondary, and tertiary care providers and designing new clinical pathways for managing pregnancy in obese women.

Results: Two distinct pathways were devised: a Pre-Gestational Pathway for programming a pregnancy in obese women; and a Gestational Pathway for the clinical management of their pregnancy.

Discussion: Judging from the preliminary results of our study, the latter (Gestational) pathway seems to be successful, since there has been a gradual increase in the number of women using it, and these women have reported having no difficulty in accessing the services involved. It is noteworthy that immigrant women (who accounted for 60% of the women using the pathway) also reported no access issues. The pre-gestational pathway was very little used, however, accounting for only 2% of the appointments made with the services involved. In conclusion, the key to success in managing pregnancy in obese women lies in sharing the various different health care competences required and taking the local resources into account. The prevention of obesity in women of fertile age remains the main problem, however, and further efforts are needed in this setting.

Keywords: Clinical pathway; Follow up; Obesity; Preconception counseling; Pregnancy.