Participant characteristics
177 women registered interest in the study by completing an expression
of interest contact form, however, 105 declined to participate, 27 did
not meet inclusion criteria, and 5 selected other as the reason for not
participating. A total of 40 women were eligible and enrolled in the
study a (20 randomised to each study arm). 12 women (60%) in the PMW
arm and 14 women (70%) in the CTL arm completed the intervention.
Reasons for dropping out during the intervention included, declined to
participate (n=10), medical conditions (n=2), beginning metformin (n=2),
COVID-19 lockdown (n=1). A Consort diagram of participant recruitment
and randomisation is presented in Supplementary Figure 1.
There were no differences between groups for age (CTL: 34 ± 4 y; PMW: 33
± 5 y), height (CTL: 1.7 ± 0.2 m; PMW: 1.6 ± 0.1 m), pre-pregnancy
weight (CTL: 72.3 ± 16.9 kg; PMW: 81.2 ± 20.0 kg), pregnancy weight (at
time of enrolment) (CTL: 80.5 ± 17.4 kg; 87.9 ± 20.8 kg), pregnancy BMI
(at ~28 wks) (CTL: 38.7 ± 5.4 kg.m-2;
PMW 32.8 ± 6.0 kg.m-2), and Godin physical activity
score (38.7 ± 23.8 a.u.; PMW: 32.8 ± 6.0 a.u.). Pre-pregnancy BMI (but
not pregnancy BMI) was significantly higher in PMW (CTL: 25.74 ± 5.12
kg.m-2, PMW: 30.23 ± 6.21 kg.m-2; p
= 0.046), and gravida was significantly higher in CTL (CTL: 2.18 ± 0.88
children, PMW: 1.46 ± 0.66 children; p = 0.021).
When groups were matched for pre-pregnancy BMI (CTL n=19: 26.3 ± 4.8
kg.m-2, PMW n=19: 29.2 ± 5.2 kg.m-2;
p = 0.156), there were no differences in baseline characteristics
between groups (as above).