Currently, heart rate limits are typically not imposed. Many years ago, the recommendation was that pregnant women should not raise their heart rate above 140 bpm during exercise. Some of these specific maternal physiologic adaptations to exercise during pregnancy include increased maternal blood volume, improved growth and function of the placenta, and increased ability of the mother to dissipate heat.ĭespite previous concerns that vigorous maternal exercise would harm the unborn baby, research shows exercise does not compromise blood flow, oxygenation, or temperature of the baby. Thus, when a mother exercises during pregnancy, she is creating a mild stressor for the fetus that might alter development in a positive way. Score higher on intelligence tests at one and five years of age How Does Exercise Increase Resilience in Babies?Īll biological systems positively adapt to stressors and stimuli like exercise through infancy, childhood, and adulthood.Better resilience when faced with the stresses of late pregnancy, labor, and delivery.Better growth and development patterns in utero.Recovered more rapidly post-labor What Are the Benefits to the Babies?īabies of mothers who exercised strenuously during pregnancy had both short- and long-term benefits such as:.Gained less fat & decreased risk for long-term obesity.Women who exercised all the way through their pregnancy compared to women who either stopped during their pregnancy or did not exercise at all had: Results showed no evidence of risk and instead showed that the exercising mothers and their babies were in better condition during pregnancy, labor, and postpartum. In the last thirty years, researchers have followed women through their pregnancies who have elected to maintain a strenuous exercise regimen (> 3 times/week, 20 plus minutes/session, at moderate-vigorous intensity, weight-bearing exercise). Today, we know that excessive sitting and lack of physical activity during pregnancy can be harmful to both the mother and baby. While the effects of exercise on pregnancy were unknown, many health care providers in the 1970’s and 1980’s took a conservative approach to the unknown risks of strenuous exercise and recommended avoidance. Would brief exercise-induced increases in internal temperature create fetal malformations? Would increases in intensity of activity decrease blood flow and oxygen supply to the fetus? Concerns with exercise and pregnancy involved questions like: For example, smoking, alcohol, drugs, and nutritional deficiencies have clear effects on fetal development. History of Exercise Guidelines for Pregnant WomenĮvidence grew in the 1960’s and 1970’s that things women do and don’t do affect the pregnancy outcome. Therefore, my goal with this article is to shed light on the current evidence of the effects of exercise during pregnancy for the mother and baby and clarify the guidelines for exercise during pregnancy. Sadly, these misconceptions of the safety of exercise during pregnancy prevents women from reaping the benefits for themselves and their babies. My story exposes the long-standing belief in our culture that pregnant women should not be lifting weights or doing vigorous exercise, but instead should only be resting and pampered. Instead of giving one guy a physiology lesson in the produce aisle, I decided to end our conversation abruptly and reach out to a larger audience by sharing the current research through this article and other outlets.Ĭurrent Societal Beliefs of Exercise During Pregnancy However, I quickly realized that he was shaming me and suggesting I was taking care of my fitness at the expense of my unborn baby. Stunned, I paused, trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. “Gotta take care of number one…” he said sneering and shaking his head. “You still doing your pull-ups?” he said. My two-year-old and 15-month old were yelling from the cart, grabbing anything off the shelf they could get their hands on, when I ran into an acquaintance. I was at the grocery store, 8 months pregnant with my third baby.
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