This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Exercise during pregnancy linked with lower blood pressure in children
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Study findings published in The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness found an association between maternal exercise during pregnancy and lower systolic blood pressure among children.
From 1996 to 2000, study researcher James M. Pivarnik, PhD, of Michigan State University, and colleagues conducted a study that evaluated physical activity measurement techniques during pregnancy and the postpartum period. Twenty women from the previous study cohort were available for follow-up 8 to 10 years after delivery. Women and their children attended two lab visits, where data for birth weight, length and gestational age at delivery were reviewed. Mothers were asked to recall their present physical activity during a typical week and activity during their first, second and third trimesters.
James M. Pivarnik
Sixty percent of mothers met American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommendations for physical activity during pregnancy. Seventy-five percent met adult physical activity guidelines in the current study.
Forty percent of the children met pediatric physical activity guidelines, getting at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity daily. Twenty-five percent of children were overweight.
Children of mothers whose physical activity during pregnancy met recommendations had significantly lower birth weight vs. children of mothers whose physical activity during pregnancy was below recommended levels (3.51 kg vs. 4.05 kg; P<.05). During the third trimester, maternal physical activity was inversely related to child systolic blood pressure, according to researchers (P<.05).
Birth weight was not related to systolic blood pressure among children whose mothers met physical activity recommendations during pregnancy. However, birth weight was inversely related to systolic blood pressure in children whose mothers failed to meet physical activity recommendations (P=.03).
“Although our sample size was small, it was interesting that the relationship between maternal physical activity and child systolic blood pressure was significant only during the third trimester,” Pivarnik and colleagues wrote. “This suggests that the disruption of the relationship between birth weight and child systolic blood pressure might have been due to physical activity performed later, rather than earlier in pregnancy.”
Because the majority of fetal growth occurs later in pregnancy, it is possible maternal physical activity later in pregnancy may have a greater effect on fetal growth, the researchers wrote.
“Thus, the reduction in birth weight associated with increased physical activity may be a natural physiologic and helpful effect,” they concluded.
Disclosure: Infectious Diseases in Children was unable to confirm financial disclosures at the time of publication.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts