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Topical Area: Maternal, Perinatal and Pediatric Nutrition

Maternal, Perinatal and Pediatric Nutrition (I) (Poster Session)

(P07-053-23) Exploring Intuitive Eating During the Transformative Perinatal Period

Saturday, July 22, 2023
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM ET
Location: Poster Board 185
Disclosure(s):
Harini Shanmugasundaram, BS: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.
Elaine Beulick, MS, RD, LD: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.
Michelle R. Krach, MS: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.


Objectives: Research has shown that people who eat based on physiological hunger and satiety exhibit greater internal awareness and trust of internal body cues, leading to less situational and emotional eating. Intuitive eating guides patients to reconnect with their bodies and encourages learning to trust internal cues. Few studies have explored internal awareness during the perinatal period. This study explored women’s experiences with internal awareness and trust of internal body cues regarding food and diet in the perinatal period.

Methods: Inductive thematic analysis was conducted on ten 60-minute semi-structured interviews (2021-2022) with primiparous mothers in their third trimester or with a child ≤12 months. Participants shared their experiences with health, diet, and body image while becoming mothers.  

Results: Eighteen themes emerged, including two themes (Food and Diet, Mom’s Guilt and Shame) within which mothers expressed changes in their internal awareness related to eating during the perinatal period. For example, one mother shared experiencing a paradigm shift during pregnancy “If [I] craved something like junk food [...I] deserved it [] that kind of mentality.” Mothers also expressed being “a lot more easygoing [on themselves] when it came to snacks and foods.” Pregnant women noticed their food and diet-related guilt decrease and theorized that the shift was related to the inevitability of weight gain during pregnancy, “Regardless of what I’m putting into [my body], I’m going to be getting more round.”

Conclusions: Results from this study suggest that women in the perinatal period experience increased internal awareness and improved trust in hunger and satiety cues. Women’s increased attunement to internal cues places the perinatal period as a unique window of opportunity for promoting healthy dietary habits rooted in the pursuit of health regardless of body size.

Funding Sources: Saint Louis University, Applied Health Research Grant Program