Healthy Lifestyle in Pregnancy Service

What is the service?

We provide additional support for you to achieve a healthy weight gain during your pregnancy, as well as offering advice on healthy lifestyle changes to help you and your baby.
The service is run by a specialist midwife, dietitian and physiotherapist who offer advice on food and drink, good nutrition for you and your baby, exercise in pregnancy and how making small changes to your lifestyle can reduce potential pregnancy, labour and postnatal risks for you and your baby.

What should I expect to happen at my appointment?

Your appointment is a joint discussion between you, the midwife, dietitian and physiotherapist in a relaxed, friendly, open manner. We hope this will allow you to take a full part in the discussion and be able to ask questions or discuss any concerns that you may have. We want you to have all the information that you need so that you can make decisions with the support of the team.

We will discuss how a healthy lifestyle can be adapted into your daily routine. We aim to make sure your baby gets all the nutrients it needs while still allowing for your day to day lifestyle.

Losing weight is not recommended when you are pregnant. With your permission, we will measure and record your weight at each appointment, so that we can monitor your weight throughout your pregnancy.

The midwife will discuss the progress of your pregnancy with you. She may carry out an antenatal check as required.

The physiotherapist will discuss how you can stay active throughout your pregnancy and encourage exercises and activities which are safe for you to carry out depending on how your pregnancy is affecting your pelvic joints.

How long will my appointment last?

Your first appointment will last between 45-60 minutes with review appointments lasting around 30 minutes.
We aim to review you every four to six weeks throughout your pregnancy. You will still see your community midwife as well as coming along to these appointments.

Where are appointments held?

How do I get an appointment?

If you would like an appointment, or want more information, please call or text 07770 698 955 to arrange a date and time at your chosen venue, over video call or by telephone. A voicemail facility is available to leave a message if no one is available.

If you have given your mobile phone number to be contacted by Florence, NHSL free text messaging service, you will receive messages from Flo. If you do not wish to receive messages by text then you can stop them at any time by texting STOP.

What happens after I’ve had my baby?

We can continue to support you with your healthy lifestyle following the birth of your baby. We can review you after your six week postnatal check and offer you a total of four further appointments.

This is what some women have said about how the service helped them:

• I’ve found them really useful because it’s made me think about different areas in my health… Be it physical, mental, what I was eating and what I could change and things like that
• I think it’s great. It’s definitely worthwhile going to. I feel it’s like a sort of support network that I’ve got. So, yeah, I’m feeling it is helping me anyway in making better choices and having that in the back of my mind
• I think, well, looking at my past experience with dieting, giving up after two or three months, now I lasted eight months during pregnancy. Of course I know in the back of my head that it’s for the baby as well. But I don’t think I would be able to do that without positive attitude towards me and receiving it at every appointment from the women in here
• I would recommend it… because it gives you a peace of mind, alternative things to do… knowing what you can do and things like that as well
• I had them encouraging me, saying and doing what’s best for me and for the baby as well, which is very important… The best thing is the support really. You can’t beat it.

If you need this information in another language or format, please e-mail:

Translation.Services@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk