CO-OP Trial: Community-based Outreach on Obesity in Pregnancy

Obesity is becoming more common and disproportionately affects the younger generation, the poor and certain ethnic groups. Nearly 50% of reproductive aged women are obese or overweight. Obesity during pregnancy leads to higher rates of hypertensive disorders, stillbirth, less successful breastfeeding, obesity in their offspring, postpartum depression, and higher weight retention postpartum. Dietary counseling can prevent excessive maternal weight gain and is more effective than activity-based interventions. The two objectives of this study are 1) to use community-based techniques to improve dietary counseling for high risk women and 2) to randomize obese women to dietary counseling at Truman Medical Center and measure their success. The hypothesis is that dietary interventions can successfully be tailored for high risk women and that excessive weight gain during pregnancy can be avoided.