Many adverse outcomes for both mother and baby can result from suboptimal maternal nutrition during pregnancy(1). Pregnancy is seen as an opportunity to encourage beneficial lifestyle changes(2). The Health Service Executive published nutritional guidelines for pregnancy in Ireland(3), however there is no standardised approach for assessment in antenatal care. The FIGO Nutrition Checklist is a tool which asks “yes/no” questions about dietary intakes in pregnant women with the goal of identifying deficits compared to recommendations. A “no” answer to one or more questions indicates a possible nutrition risk in the diet. Implementation of the Nutrition Checklist during pregnancy would benefit both mother and baby. The aim of this study is to assess the nutritional intakes of pregnant women attending the public outpatient clinic in the National Maternity Hospital, Dublin using the FIGO Nutrition Checklist, and assess the acceptability of the tool for use as part of routine antenatal care.

This observational cross-sectional study used two self-administered questionnaires to (i) assess women’s nutritional intakes to identify those at nutritional risk, and (ii) assess the acceptability of the Nutrition Checklist as part of routine antenatal care. Recruitment took place from December 2023 to February 2024. All English-speaking women of any gestation or parity attending the public outpatient department of NMH were eligible to take part. Baseline characteristics were obtained through their hospital records on the electronic chart system. Statistical analysis was completed using IBM SPSS.

A total of 102 pregnant women were recruited during routine antenatal clinics in the public outpatients department in the NMH, Dublin, Ireland. Most (88.7%) declined following a special diet. The majority (85.7%) answered “No” to at least one diet quality question, highlighting potential nutritional risk. Only 43.9% reported eating at least one portion of fish per week and 20.4% reported consuming <1 serving of wholegrains per day. Current folic acid intakes were high among the cohort, however 16.3% answered “No” to currently taking folic acid. The acceptability of the checklist was excellent. Most (70.6%) women strongly agreed that the checklist was easy to complete, with 80% recommending using it in practice and most (81.4%) of the women who took part in the survey agreed that the checklist contained useful information, with only 1% disagreeing.

The FIGO Nutrition Checklist identified numerous nutritional concerns and the acceptability of the checklist was excellent. This suggests that using the tool as part of routine antenatal care should be considered.