Subpage Listing | Using Mobile Technology in Tackling Maternal Obesity (MOMTech) Project Lead | Hora Soltani | h.soltani@shu.ac.uk Other Project Staff | Professor Andy Dearden, Dr Maddy Arden, Dr Penny Furness and Alex Scott Expert Advisory Panel | Professor Gail Mountain, Jo Cooke, Mike Smith and Susan Hampshaw Background Obesity and excessive weight gain during pregnancy are associated with an increased risk of complications as well as maternal and neonatal mortality. Excessive weight gain during pregnancy can also lead to further development of obesity in women and their offspring, therefore effective strategies are required to tackle this important health issue. Project SummaryThis project links with existing care pathways and will provide technological advances on previous projects. The development of an e-health platform, delivered through a portable device, can optimise access and promote effectiveness by overcoming challenges associated with the stigma and other face-to-face barriers. A phased approach was taken to develop and evaluate this complex intervention. The results of the preclinical and phase I are presented here. Through a structured literature search and focus groups of women and midwives a preliminary prototype was developed. Additional focus groups were carried out to verify acceptability of the intervention components. This was followed by a usability testing to explore implementation of the intervention into the practical setting. The results of the focus groups were analysed thematically. Women and midwives welcomed an additional support particularly text messaging for maternal obesity management as a modern and discrete service. A message delivery platform, 96 motivational text messages, and diaries were developed to enable goal setting for diet and physical activity behaviour change and self-monitoring purposes. The verification process identified several areas for improvement. Participants felt that consultations went well, some text messages needed rewording, one message a day was ideal, and the diary layout and colours needed changing. A few minor software improvements were also identified. Professor Hora Soltani (Chair in Maternal and Infant Health at Sheffield Hallam University-project lead) says "This project is an excellent example of academic and clinical networking. The need for the study was identified as a result of a gap analysis by clinicians leading the maternal obesity clinic in Doncaster and their communications with myself." CLAHRC Themes involved in the Project CLAHRC project partners Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Supported by BUPA for feasibility testing |