SPRING (Southampton Pregnancy Intervention for the Next Generation)

Overview

SPRING brings together the interventions in MAVIDOS (vitamin D supplementation) and SIH (Healthy Conversation Skills) to improve health behaviours in the mothers and the children as well as the body composition of the children.

Objective

To test the feasibility of delivering a client-centred behaviour change programme during pregnancy to improve diet and body composition outcomes in women and their children.

Methods

A 22 factorial trial, with vitamin D supplementation as one arm and ‘healthy conversation skills’ (HCS) as the other, started in April 2014 with the aim of recruiting 248 women attending the local maternity hospital in early pregnancy. Women will be seen at four points during pregnancy and at one month postnatally, during which behaviour change support will be offered to those in the HCS intervention group. Diet, body composition of mother and infant, self-efficacy, and duration of breastfeeding will be assessed.