Pregnancy
Exercise Can Lower the Risk of Childhood Obesity and Diabetes by Just 20
Minutes a Day
Even for those who are
socially disadvantaged, physical activity during pregnancy is safe and
beneficial, according to a Brazilian study. To prevent childhood obesity and
diabetes, researchers discovered that the World Health Organization's (WHO)
recommendation of at least 150 minutes of exercise per week was linked to a
decrease in the baby's birth weight without raising the risk that the baby
would be born with less weight than would be expected based on gestational age.
The results were just
released in the PLoS ONE publication. The research was carried out as a part of
the "Maternal and Child Health in Acre: Birth Cohort in the Western
Brazilian Amazon (MINA Brazil)" initiative by researchers from the School
of Public Health of the University of So Paulo (FSP-USP) and has been ongoing
since 2015.
The project's principal
investigator is Marly Augusto Cardoso, a professor in the Nutrition Department
at FSP-USP. "Previous studies investigated how leisure-time physical
activity during pregnancy affects birth weight and other outcomes, but there
was a lack of prospective research on the topic in low- and middle-income
countries," she said.
Racial differences,
according to Cardoso, might influence the outcomes. Compared to past studies,
this one's participants self-identified as something other than White by nearly
80%. Furthermore, several characteristics of underdeveloped places might play a
part. For example, newborn weight concerns in wealthy countries are mainly
focused on overweight infants, which is just one extreme, whereas, in
low-income communities, mother and child malnutrition is the main issue and can
cause low birth weight. In addition, women in developing countries frequently
exercise more at work or home. Does leisure-time physical exercise enhance the
percentage of small-for-gestational-age newborns in this situation? Cardoso
enquired.
She continued by pointing
out that both extremes—being both underweight and overweight at birth—were
represented in the MINA Brazil research sample. This is the first prospective
study, as mentioned in the paper, to examine the effect of leisure-time
physical activity on birth weight in a middle-income country with a majority of
non-white women.
Data
gathering
The FSP-USP group's study
population is located in Cruzeiro do Sul, a city in Acre state with about
88,000 residents. Between February 2015 and January 2016, pregnant women in the
town were observed, and their babies were evaluated with the families'
permission. The participants underwent physical examinations and completed
questionnaires on a variety of subjects, including lifestyle, child nutrition,
gut microbiota, and malaria infection. With this cohort, "we want to
explore several questions," Cardoso stated.
The researchers
concentrated on information on leisure-time physical activity for the 500
volunteers covered by the project for this paper. The pregnant women provided
information about the quantity of exercise they had done in the second and
third trimesters before being weighed and divided into groups based on whether
they had completed the minimum 150 minutes of weekly exercise that was advised.
At delivery, newborns were weighed.
Only 7.3 percent of women
in the first trimester and 9.5 percent in the second engaged in the minimal
amount of leisure activity that is advised. The percentage was 42% before
pregnancy. Unfortunately, Cruzeiro does Sul is not unique in this regard. Even
now, a lot of doctors advise relaxation during pregnancy, especially in the
first trimester, according to the article's initial author, Mara Malta. Malta
teaches in the graduate collective health program at the Catholic University of
Santos (UNISANTOS) in the state of Sao Paulo. However, there is substantial
evidence to support the advantages of leisure-time physical activity for both
mother and fetus during pregnancy.
Sufficient
weight
In the third trimester of
pregnancy, the practice of engaging in at least 150 minutes of physical
exercise per week was associated with a birth weight reduction of 137.9 g on
average. The percentage of underweight kids born to these women did not
increase as a result, though. This could imply that exercise reduces the
likelihood of having a baby who is overweight without going too far in the
other direction, according to Malta.
The article also concludes
that the moms' unnaturally high prenatal weight increase contributed to this
consequence. In other words, the outcome was likely partially influenced by the
fact that exercise helps keep expectant mothers from becoming overweight or
obese. Given that pregnant woman who gains more weight typically have larger
kids, effective weight management of the mother through physical exercise may
somewhat (but not entirely) account for the babies' lower birth weight.
It had a minor mediation
impact, according to Malta. Previous studies revealed that the link persisted
after controlling for maternal body mass index (BMI), indicating that maternal
weight is only partially responsible for the relationship between physical
activity and birth weight.
For women who engaged in
the recommended level of leisure-time physical activity throughout the second
trimester of pregnancy, the results were different. Our study confirms the
importance of health professionals encouraging expectant mothers to exercise,
especially if they tend to gain weight throughout the pregnancy, according to
Cardoso. We must decrease the percentage of pregnant women who are sedentary,
yet a prenatal obstetric examination is necessary since rest is sometimes
necessary.
Limitations
and prospective goals
MINA Brazil is a member
of The Gestational Weight Gain (GWG) Pooling Project Consortium, a worldwide
partnership funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In low- and
middle-income nations, the effect of GWG on mother and child health is examined.
Few of the cohort's
pregnant women engaged in the recommended 150 minutes of physical activity each
week, making it impossible to determine if exercise had any impact on birth
weight or other outcomes. The researchers were also unable to determine
precisely how the amount of time spent engaging in physical activity interacts
with its advantages.
Additionally, pregnant
women residing in rural areas were not included in the study sample; they might
have displayed other anomalies. The researchers state in the study that
additional research should be done in these areas. To gauge the medium- to
long-term impacts of physical activity, researchers will keep track of these
women and their kids. The initiative will simultaneously look into several
facets of health and lifestyle, such as recurrent malaria exposure, which prior
research has shown to raise the risk of anemia in a baby's early years.