Pre-gestational diabetes: benefits and barriers to attendance at pre-pregnancy clinics

cb
Thumbnail Image
Files
s11845-025-04037-9 (2).pdf(528.82 KB)
Published Version
Date
2025-08-15
Authors
Murphy, Cathriona
Kennedy, Ashling
Wyse, Adrianne
Kgosidialwa, Oratile
O'Riordan, Mairead N.
Tuthill, Antoinette
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer Nature
Published Version
10.1007/s11845-025-04037-9
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Abstract
Background Pre-gestational diabetes mellitus increases the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. Pre-pregnancy clinics are a well-established and cost-effective way of reducing pregnancy complications. Aims This study aimed to review outcome differences between women with pre-gestational diabetes who did/did not attend pre-pregnancy clinics and to evaluate barriers to attendance. Methods 1) A retrospective study examined data from all women with pre-gestational diabetes who received obstetric care in Cork University Maternity Hospital 2015–2019. 2) A cross-sectional survey of women attending antenatal clinics during the study period. A telephone questionnaire was completed to understand facilitators and barriers to pre-pregnancy attendance. Results Two hundred women were included retrospectively: 65.5% with Type1 diabetes, and 30.5% with type 2 diabetes. Only 26% (52) attended pre-pregnancy clinics. Although there were no differences in miscarriage rate, congenital anomaly, mode of delivery or neonatal intensive care unit admission between groups, the mean birth weight of babies born to women who attended pre-pregnancy clinics was less than those who did not attend (3294.5 ± 753.0 g vs. 3598.8 ± 802.8 g; p = 0.02). Twenty-eight women were included cross-sectionally, nine of whom attended pre-pregnancy clinics. All who attended found it useful. Eight participants proposed a hybrid clinic model to optimise future service engagement. Increasing awareness was advocated by many participants. Conclusion Attendance at pre-pregnancy clinics is low. Lack of awareness is the greatest barrier reported to attendance. To optimise perinatal outcomes, efforts are required to increase attendance; this may be facilitated by increasing awareness of these clinics, as suggested by the women themselves.
Description
Keywords
Attendance , Barriers , Diabetes mellitus , Facilitators , Pre-gestational , Pregnancy , Pre-pregnancy clinic
Citation
Murphy, C., Culliney, L., Whelan, S., O’Mahony, L., Kennedy, A., Sugrue, M., Wyse, A., Kgosidialwa, O., O’Riordan, M. and Tuthill, A. (2025) 'Pre-gestational diabetes: benefits and barriers to attendance at pre-pregnancy clinics', Irish Journal of Medical Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-025-04037-9
Link to publisher’s version
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/10468/17891
Collections
Medicine - Journal Articles
Copyright
© 2025, the Authors. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by/4.0/.