In the past it was commonly suggested that while during pregnancy, women should just rest for the protection of themselves and their babies. There was even a set of guidelines published in 1985 by the American Congress of Obstetricians, which stated that pregnant women should keep strenuous activity to fifteen minutes or less.
Since then there has been a dramatic change in how doctors and scientists perceive exercise during pregnancy. Exercise is now thought to be great for the mother and the unborn child. Researchers are also now starting to look even more closely at how exercise can influence a baby’s health in the womb and how these effects might translate into protection from future health problems.”
One reason why women should exercise during pregnancy is due to hearth health. In 2010, a woman by the name of Linda May along with some of her colleagues gathered a group of 26 pregnant women. These women reported that they had been consistently exercising for three times a week for 30 minutes each. When the women reached 36 weeks they brought them into the lab and studied their and their babies’ heart rates. They noticed that compared to moms who were not regular exercises, these moms and their babies has lower heart rates.
The benefits of exercising while pregnant also last into a child’s life after birth. May and her colleagues also discovered “higher heart rate variability if they had exercised along with their moms in utero(Walker).” These benefits can lead into healthier childhood years, in which they have more efficiently pumping hearts.
May suggests that a mix of aerobics and strength training during pregnancy is a good plan to keep yourself and your baby healthy during pregnancy.
Walker, Cameron. “Exercise During Pregnancy Benefits Mom—And Baby, Too.” Discovery Magazine: n. pag. Web. 22 Oct. 2014. <http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2014/05/08/exercise-during-pregnancy-benefits-mom-and-baby-too/#.VEpH2VXF_1U>.
I think that exercising in general is crucial in everyones life, but may be hard for someone who is pregnant. Especially for those pregnant mothers who didn’t exercise before pregnancy, its going to make it that much more difficult to start with about 6+ pounds attached to their stomach. I think the sample size you found (26 women) was rather small, perhaps a larger group would have made the information more reliable. I believe that this could be due to the fact that these women may have just so happened to have good health before exercising pregnant. You mention that the women exercised for thirty minutes a day three days a week, do you know what type of exercise they did to help them lower their heart rate? This information could be beneficial to pregnant women. I think that there is definitely a maximum time that pregnant women should workout and regulation as to what they can do, because you don’t want them to strain themselves or hurt the baby. Here are a few tips I found to ensure safe exercising while pregnant, check it out!
I think exercise is vital to anyone’s health whether a woman is pregnant or not! It allows stress to be released and gives the body a good workout. Although I support exercise for pregnant women I do agree that workouts should be modified and as soon as a woman becomes further along in her pregnancy she should reduce her amount. There are many different ways to exercise that still allow a woman to feel less stressed and better. Here is a list of the best kind of exercises for pregnant women to do.
http://www.babycenter.com/0_the-best-kinds-of-exercise-for-pregnancy_7880.bc
While my sister in law was pregnant a study was released that exercising while pregnant can actually increase your baby’s brain activity! It isn’t found that it makes your child actually smarter, but it does increase brain activity. It makes you wonder all the other possibilities working out while pregnant could do. You can read more on the brain activity here
I also agree that pregnant women should excercise. I think that we are always taught that pregnant women should not use tobacco and should not drink. On warning labels for items like hair dye it is shown that pregnant women should not be using this because it can affect the unborn child. Pregnant women are taught that whatever they are eating and drinking, the baby is eating and drinking too. So I think it aonly makes sense that if the woman is excercising which improves heart health, then the baby would only get an improved heart health, as well.
I agree that pregnant women should exercise, but I hope they are doing the right kind of exercise. According to your post, they should work out three times a week for thirty minutes but what kind of work out should they be doing? I saw a really disturbing video the other day of a woman doing P90X while pregnant. I can not imagine this kind of work out would be beneficial to the baby, even if (lets say) she was working out 3 times a week for 30 minutes. Here is a person’s point of view who did P90X while they were pregnant.
http://www.teambeachbody.com/member/journal/-/journal-entry/jessicacampos/137794621