Exercise During Pregnancy Benefits Both Mom and Baby

Exercising during pregnancy has obvious benefits for the mom, such as keeping weight gain under control, maintaining fitness level, and relieving stress, but until recently, little has been known about the positive effects on the unborn baby.

Research presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Physiological Society implied that exercise has cardiovascular benefits not only for the mom, but for the developing fetus as well. Dr. Linda E. May and colleagues from the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences hypothesized that fetuses whose mothers exercised would have better autonomic nervous system function than fetuses not exposed to exercise.

The women that participated in the study were between 28-36 weeks pregnant. Five women performed moderate intensity aerobic exercise for a minimum of 30 minutes, 3 times per week, and five women did not exercise regularly. Fetal heart rate and heart rate variability were measured, and the heart rates of the fetuses exposed to exercise were found to be lower than the fetuses that were not exposed to exercise. As well, the heart rate variability was higher in the exercise group.

May concluded, “When the mom exercises during pregnancy, the unborn baby gets the same type of training effect that you would see in an adult — so you see the lower heart rate and also improved heart rate variability, which is evidence of improvements in the nervous system of the heart. Maternal exercise may be the earliest intervention to improve the heart of children and possibly the best.”

So, for those of you that are pregnant or know someone that is, encourage them to exercise both for themselves and their unborn baby!