What do midwives know about nutrition?

An empirical analysis

M. Steinmann, München

During pregnancy and lactation healthy nutrition is essential. Inadequate nutrition of the mother may affect child development. At this time, midwives are important confidential persons asked for advice in all questions relating to pregnancy, childbirth and lactation.

It was to find out whether midwives are asked for nutritional advice, what they know about nutrition and whether they are interested in further training. Five percent of all German midwives were questioned. The results have shown that midwives are frequently asked for nutritional advice and that the midwives questioned have a good basic knowledge.

If asked more specific questions relating e.g. to allergy prevention midwives have occasionally been found to be unsure or give false information. These results are reason for DGE to develop an advanced training programme for midwives.

Keywords: pregnancy, midwives, nutritional knowledge, nutritional behaviour, nutritional counselling, nutrient intake, infant nutrition

Sie finden den Artikel in deutscher Sprache in Ernährungs Umschau 01/08 ab Seite 12.