Merrie Walters

Honors in Nursing

Major: Nursing

Supervisor: Julie Smith Taylor, Nursing

Evidenced Based Strategies to Reduce the Sequelae of Maternal Obesity : An Integrative Review

The increasing prevalence of maternal obesity, with its documented adverse health effects, is a growing concern and critical health threat in the United States. Obese women are at an increased risk for chronic disease, gestational diabetes, pregnancy induced hypertension and pre-eclampsia, and adverse pregnancy outcomes such as birth defects and increased risk for childhood obesity in their infants. Infants born to obese mothers are at an increased risk of developing structural birth defects, Type 2 diabetes and obesity later in life predisposing them to cardiovascular disease and poorer health during adulthood. The challenge for nurses is that limited obesity prevention strategies have been successfully implemented for obese mothers and their infants. The purpose of this integrative review of the literature was to determine which strategies are most effective and to illustrate how these interventions could work independently or interdependently to reduce the sequelae of maternal obesity.