Obesity is a major public health concern around the world.
Research is needed to bridge knowledge gaps pertaining to fetal antenatal surveillance, management of adverse outcomes and postpartum care, and enhance consistency across CPGs. Most guidelines in this population are not evidence based. Guidance was limited for timing of screening tests, antenatal visits and delivery, ideal postpartum care, and management of adverse pregnancy outcomes. The strongest evidence related to nutritional advice, exercise, and pregnancy risk counselling. Following screening of abstracts and full texts, 32 CPGs were included, with quality ranging between 0 and 100 on the AGREE II tool. The literature search yielded 2614 unique citations. care during pregnancy, diet and exercise during pregnancy, care immediately before, during, and after delivery, and postpartum care. Information was categorized into five domains: preconception care. CPGs were appraised for quality with independent data collection by two raters. CPGs related to antenatal care of pregnant women with obesity (pre‐pregnancy body mass index ≥ 30 kg/m 2) in low‐risk (eg, care provider = family physician or midwife) or high‐risk settings (eg, obstetrician or maternal fetal medicine) were included. An experienced information specialist performed a rigorous search of the literature, searching MEDLINE, Embase, grey literature, and guideline registries to locate CPGs that reported on pregnancy care relating to obesity. The objective of this study is to conduct a systematic review to synthesize and appraise evidence from CPGs, available worldwide, for pregnant women affected by obesity.
The quality and consistency of recommendations remain unknown. Multiple clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) have been established for pregnant women with obesity.