Researcher Explores Nutrition’s Impact on Pregnancy Health

Professor Jasna Twynstra from the Brescia School of Food and Nutritional Sciences is investigating the crucial role of nutrition during pregnancy. Her research aims to enhance the guidance provided to expectant parents, ensuring they receive accurate and comprehensive information about dietary choices that impact both their health and that of their babies.

Addressing Knowledge Gaps in Prenatal Nutrition

Twynstra’s journey into this field began with her own pregnancy, where she found herself overwhelmed by the lack of clear nutritional guidance available. “I noticed there wasn’t a lot of research in Canada on how health-care providers are trained, or how much they know about giving nutrition advice to pregnant people,” she noted. This gap motivated her to shift her research focus from studying nutrient delivery in the body to understanding how to better educate pregnant individuals about their nutritional needs.

Nutrition during pregnancy is critical, as inadequate dietary intake can lead to complications such as low or high birth weight, preterm birth, and long-term health issues for both the parent and child. Twynstra is committed to ensuring every pregnant person has access to proper resources and feels confident in their dietary choices throughout their pregnancy and beyond.

Training Health-Care Providers for Better Support

Currently, family doctors often serve as the first point of nutritional guidance for pregnant individuals. Unfortunately, Twynstra points out that many health-care providers do not receive sufficient training in nutrition, leaving their patients wanting more information. “Despite having up-to-date recommendations, health-care providers don’t necessarily receive a lot of education on nutrition. Pregnant people report they would like more information from them,” she stated.

Twynstra’s ongoing research focuses on the education health-care trainees receive about nutrition in medical schools and clinical placements. By identifying the strengths and weaknesses of current training programs, she aims to help future health-care providers support pregnant individuals more effectively.

So far, Twynstra has identified time constraints as a significant barrier. The duration of appointments often limits the depth of nutrition discussions that can take place. Midwives, for instance, generally have more time to explore various nutrition-related topics during appointments. To address this issue, Twynstra advocates for referrals to registered dietitians and a multidisciplinary approach to care, ensuring pregnant individuals receive essential nutritional information regardless of their health-care setting.

“This can be boiled down to their own education, their awareness of nutrition experts such as registered dietitians, as well as understanding how much time they have with the pregnant person in their appointment,” Twynstra explained.

She sees the inconsistency in prenatal nutrition advice as a major challenge. Depending on whether a pregnant person consults a family doctor, midwife, or obstetrician, the guidance may vary considerably. This lack of standardization complicates efforts to provide equitable access to vital information.

Twynstra’s personal experiences during her pregnancy drive her research. “The questions I had during my own pregnancy are driving my research. I believe they are common questions asked by many pregnant people,” she emphasized. Her goal is to ensure that all individuals receive evidence-based answers, irrespective of their health-care provider.

Through her work, Twynstra hopes to inspire improvements in prenatal nutrition training for health-care professionals, ultimately empowering them to deliver high-quality information to their patients during a critical time in their lives. The need for a cohesive approach in prenatal nutrition is more important than ever, as the health outcomes for both parent and child depend on it.