For example, a study by Mulliner and colleagues in the United Kingdom used both quantitative and qualitative approaches to explore the education, knowledge and attitudes to nutrition during pregnancy in a randomly selected sample of registered midwives (N = 77). They reported that 86% (50 of 77 participants) of registered midwives had no formal nutrition
education post qualification; 46% (27 of 77 participants) scored
poorly in nutrition knowledge; and more than half of those
midwives (58 of 77 participants) felt unqualified to provide
nutrition advice for pregnant women, especially to vegetarian
women, women from ethnic or religious background or women
with prior medical conditions. Although the authors acknowledged
the small size of their sample, the study results clearly indicated
that midwives lacked basic nutrition information and would
benefit from improving their nutrition knowledge.
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