Table 3 Themes and subthemes identified

Eating behaviour of pregnant women

External attribution:

1. Foods changing from being usual to dangerous

  - The “impressive and frustrating list of forbidden foods”

  - After frustration come anxiety, fear and then guilt

  - Norms versus personal practices

2. Physiological changes impacting food intakes

  - Pregnancy pains that restrict women’s food choices

  - Pregnancy-related physiological changes that modify food choices

3. Weight gain

  - Losing control over body weight

  - External surveillance of weight gain

  - Reassuring themselves

Internal attribution:

4. The empowerment endeavour: building a healthier diet for mothers and their babies

  - Strategies to achieve a healthier diet

  - Maintaining some food indulgences

  - Setting personal goals to internalise weight gain

  - Contributing to their own and their baby’s health and well-being : the beginning of motherhood

Nutrition-related information behaviour

1. Passive absorption of information

  - From healthcare providers

  - From their social environment

  - From the mass media

  - Difficult cross-checking of information from all sources

2. Active information seeking behaviour

  - Benefiting from the experiences of people in their social environment

  - Ambiguous use of the Internet

  - The ultimate step: asking their healthcare provider for guidance

3. Translating information into eating behaviour