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Dietary iodine: awareness, knowledge and current practice among midwives

With new evidence that UK schoolgirls are now iodine deficient (1) and in absence of iodine prophylaxis in the UK, women should be made aware of the increased iodine requirement throughout pregnancy, its importance and how to achieve sufficiency. Midwives are crucial in disseminating nutrition and lifestyle recommendations to pregnant women; here, we assessed awareness and knowledge of iodine in the light of current practice among midwives. Sixty NHS midwives were recruited in hospitals around Glasgow from July to September 2011. A short questionnaire, which consisted of three main sections (demographics, dietary and nutrition advice and confidence and awareness) was administered face-to-face. Respondents had spent a median 12.5 years in practice and were based in the community (18 %) or hospital (56 %) with 16 % indicating working in ante-natal clinics and 18 % on the labour wards. Most saw women in the last two trimester of pregnancy (59 %), with 30 % seeing women throughout the pregnancy. A majority advised women routinely on nutrition (50%), with 58 % seeing advising on nutrition as one of their responsibilities. In practice, specific dietary and lifestyle advice was routinely provided for weight management, food safety and specific micronutrients such as iron, vitamin A and folic acid (which may not be mentioned as often as expected due to the majority of the respondents dealing with women in the last two trimester of their pregnancy). Iodine, however, is most often not mentioned (67 %), and if so, mainly upon direct enquiry (23 %).