Healthy conversation skills as an intervention to support healthy gestational weight gain: Experience and perceptions from intervention deliverers and participants.

The study was a pilot with one dietitian delivering the intervention, so it cannot show how widely Healthy Conversation Skills training would work. The intervention group received visits, phone calls, questionnaires, weighing and measuring, and Healthy Conversation Skills, so the paper cannot isolate Healthy Conversation Skills as the active component. Participants were blinded to assignment, but dietitians and research staff were not, and the dietitian knew which sessions were recorded, which may bias. Only 23 intervention and 27 control participants completed the study, and dropouts included new pregnancy complications or changing prenatal care provider. The paper did not report gestational weight gain or other health outcomes; those were described elsewhere. Focus groups included only three participants per group, limiting comparison of women's views. Women with diabetes, eating disorders, hypertension, smoking, midwife or dietitian care, and other conditions were excluded, so it does not speak to women with those conditions.

The authors declared no conflict of interest.

Do not conclude that open-question communication training improves gestational weight gain or lifestyle outcomes. This pilot reported process and perceived support only, did not report gestational weight gain outcomes, used one intervention dietitian, and found no evidence that goals were made SMARTER.