Exercising
during pregnancy isn’t only good for you: Just one hour of moderate
activity a week can boost your baby’s brain development, finds a new
study from the University of Montreal.
Researchers recruited 18 pregnant women
in their first trimesters and asked half to exercise a minimum of 20
minutes, three times per week, while the other half remained sedentary
during pregnancy. The researchers then measured the newborn babies’
ability to discriminate sounds—the basis of learning to understand
language—eight to 12 days after birth. They found that the children of
women who exercised had a more mature response, indicating their brain
development was given a head start in the womb, says study author Élise
Labonté-LeMoyne, a doctoral candidate at the University of Montreal.
Previous studies have shown that exercise
can improve brain function in adults, due largely to an increase in
blood flow to the entire body, including the brain. The researchers
think the impact on babies could be the same, just passed on from their
mothers’ actions. A future study will test the babies’ cognitive, motor,
and language development at age one to see if the improvements in brain
function are maintained.
If you’re nervous about exercising during
pregnancy, don’t be. No risks have been found in studies, even when
pregnant women participate in sports like marathon running, says
Labonté-LeMoyne. “I do generally recommend regularity rather than
intensity,” she says. “A 20-minute brisk walk every day is better than a
two hour hike on the weekend.”
It’s best, of course, to avoid sports
with risks of injury or where a ball or other equipment could hit you in
the stomach, Labonté-LeMoyne warns. Other than that, she recommends
continuing activities you did before pregnancy. Water sports, like
swimming or water aerobics, have an added advantage of increased blood
return.
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