A STUDY by researchers at Southampton University has found many mums-to-be don’t follow healthy lifestyle recommendations before they’re pregnant.

Diet and lifestyle advice for pregnant women is widely available, but little is known about whether women trying to conceive follow this advice.

Researchers from the University of Southampton investigated how well diet and lifestyle advice is followed by young women.

They interviewed 12,400 women from the Southampton Women’s Survey, a health survey of women aged 20 to 34.

All the women were interviewed about their diet, physical activity, folic acid intake, smoking habits and alcohol intake. None were pregnant at the time of the survey.

The researchers contacted the women again after three months and compared the responses of those who had become pregnant (238 in total) with those who had not. They found many of the women didn’t stick to healthy diet and lifestyle advice and that the pregnant women were only slightly more likely to do so.

Only around three in 100 of the pregnant women were following recommendations, but smoking rates were lower in the women who had become pregnant.

One in four of the pregnant women reported that they smoked compared to nearly a third of the non-pregnant women. Only half of the women from both groups reported eating the advised five portions of fruit and vegetables each day.

Study leader Professor Hazel Inskip told the health information team: “Trying for a baby is a bit like preparing for an exam when you don’t know the date – you don’t know exactly when you will conceive.

“If more of us stopped smoking and drank less alcohol, it would be much easier for women to make these healthy choices before and during their pregnancy. These health messages should be taught from a young age, as it's harder to make lifestyle choices later on.”