Research in focus: Cecilia Jevitt

Name:

Cecilia Jevitt

Title:

Professor

Faculty/Department/Unit:

Medicine/Family Practice/Midwifery

Location:

Vancouver

Year I started working at UBC:

2018

Provide an overview of your research in 75 words or less:

My research applies current evidence concerning nutrition and weight gain in pregnancy to optimize perinatal outcomes for mother and baby. I intend to lower weight-based stigma and the over-application of medical treatments to reduce obesity-related health risks by demonstrating metabolic health and uncomplicated perinatal outcomes for women with obesity.

What first motivated you (or motivates you) to conduct your research?

When I was a new midwife, any pregnant woman who weighed more than 200 pounds (91 kg) was automatically considered high risk and transferred to physician care. Since 1980, the prevalence of women with obesity in many areas has reached 30% or more. Studies in the last 15 years have shown that at least 50% of women with high weights have no obesity-related disease, such as diabetes or hypertension. With appropriate support, they have normal pregnancy outcomes without extra medical treatments.

What do you hope will change as a result of this research?

I hope that the outdated thinking that people can control their own weight by simply eating less and exercising more is debunked and disseminated. Excess weight is an intergenerational physical, epigenetic adaptation to multiple socio-economic disparities and their resulting stressors, social and physical environments that alter the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis (HPA) through exposure to chronic stress and endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and broken non-nutritive food systems.

What have you learned during your research that has surprised you the most?

Food supply systems around the world are inequitable and fragile. Food production in many countries is geared toward corporate profit, not population health. Nutritious food underpins all health. Current food production aims for fast production, not making the most nutritious widely available. Health care providers must think broadly about food's medicinal properties and work toward rich food production environments that maximize the nutrient content of food, then make nutritious foods widely, inexpensively, and easily available.

Learn more:

https://midwifery.ubc.ca/2018/10/24/cecilia-m-jevitt/ 

My knowledge translation site AdvantageMidwifery.org contains educational materials about nutrition and weight gain in pregnancy that can be used free of charge by health care educators, clinicians and patients.