Exercise during pregnancy improves your baby's brain development, which could affect the rest of its life, according to new research.
Historically, women were encouraged to exert themselves as little as possible from their second trimester, the rationale being that bed rest would result in fewer complications. However, obstetricians now say that inactivity could be the cause of problems during pregnancy. The latest research says that the baby and the mother benefit from exercise.
"Our research indicates that exercise during pregnancy enhances the newborn child's brain development," lead author Professor Dave Ellemberg said. Ellemberg, who is based at Montreal University, and his colleagues presented their research last week at the Neuroscience 2013 congress in San Diego.
"While animal studies have shown similar results, this is the first randomised controlled trial in humans to objectively measure the impact of exercise during pregnancy directly on the newborn's brain," Ellemberg said.
The study
Eighteen women at the beginning of their second trimester were randomly assigned to either the "exercise" or the "sedentary" group. The 10 women in the "exercise" group performed cardiovascular exercise three times a week for about 20 minutes, but only so that they experienced a slight shortness of breath. The women in the "sedentary" group did not exercise.
Once their babies were eight to 12 days old, the researchers assessed the newborns' brain activity with electroencephalography, which measures the electrical activity.
"We used 124 soft electrodes placed on the infant's head and waited for the child to fall asleep on his or her mother's lap," doctoral candidate Élise Labonté-LeMoyne, who was also involved in the research, said.
"We measured auditory memory by means of the brain's unconscious response to repeated and novel sounds.
"Our results show that the babies born from the mothers who were physically active [during their pregnancy] have a more mature cerebral activation, suggesting that their brains developed more rapidly."
The University of Montreal's Professor Daniel Curnier, who also worked on the study, said: "[Recent research showed that] being sedentary increases the risks of suffering complications during pregnancy, but being active can ease postpartum recovery, make pregnancy more comfortable and reduce the risk of obesity in children.
"Given that exercise has been demonstrated to be beneficial for the adult brain, we hypothesised that it could also be beneficial for the unborn child through the mother's actions."
Changing women's health habits
Ellemberg said that hopefully this research would guide public health intervention and encourage women to change their health habits during pregnancy, "given that the simple act of exercising could make a difference for their child's future".
The researchers would evaluate the children's cognitive, motor and language development at one year of age to verify whether these differences were maintained, the University of Montreal said.
In its 2007 guidelines for maternal care, the South African department of health says that healthcare practitioners should advise pregnant women on their diet and exercise, but it does not articulate what this advice should be.
Gynaecologist Eddie Mhlanga said: "In general we know that exercise is good [for pregnant women] as long as it is done in moderation … for the mother's physical condition and blood pressure."
He queried the study's findings, saying that we needed to know more about how these women were chosen and what specific markers the researchers were using.
But, if the benefits for the baby were real, "it is all the more reason a [pregnant] mother should remain fit … unless there is a contraindication because of disease".