Conversation Cards for Moms: A mixed methods study to create and evaluate a new clinical tool for use in maternity care settings

It is estimated that 50% of Canadian women who give birth every year will gain more weight than recommended during pregnancy. Starting discussions about certain topics, especially those about body weight, can be difficult. Previous research has shown that conversation cards are a great way to help patients and healthcare providers start talking about sensitive topics; however, none have been created for pregnant women. This 3-phase, person-centered study will create and evaluate Conversation Cards for Moms (MomCards) with the goal of empowering women to discuss sensitive topics with their providers. Step 1: This phase includes recruiting pregnant women living with different pre-pregnancy body mass indices (BMIs) and maternity care providers to participate in virtual focus groups designed to determine topics (e.g., lifestyle behaviours and weight gain) that are important to women and maternity care providers. An analysis of the results will help create the first draft of the topic statements for the MomCards. Step 2: Next, the first iteration of the MomCards statements will be sent out to a large sample of Canadian pregnant women and maternity care providers as a survey to refine the statements and rank the most important card statements to have a deck of ~45 MomCards. Step 3: Finally, we will test the use of the MomCards with a diverse sample of pregnant women who have different pre-pregnancy BMIs to determine their confidence, acceptability, and feasibility of using the cards as a way to initiate discussions with maternity care providers. Each step is critical in helping to create and refine the MomCards in preparation for a clinical trial. In collaboration with key maternal health stakeholders and exchange partners, our goal is to disseminate the cards to inform clinical practices in prenatal maternity care settings. Ultimately, we hope to empower women to discuss topics that matter to them which will in turn improve health outcomes for mom and baby.