Exercise in pregnant women and birth weight: a randomized controlled trial.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Birth weight plays an important role in infant mortality and morbidity, childhood development, and adult health. To date there are contradictory results regarding the role of physical activity on birth weight. In addition, it is questioned whether exercise during second and third trimesters of pregnancy might affect gestational age and increase the risk of preterm delivery. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a supervised exercise-program on birth weight, gestational age at delivery and Apgar-score.

Methods

Sedentary, nulliparous pregnant women (N = 105), mean age 30.7 ± 4.0 years, pre-pregnancy BMI 23.8 ± 4.3 were randomized to either an exercise group (EG, n = 52) or a control group (CG, n = 53). The exercise program consisted of superv

SUBMITTER: Haakstad LA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3198740 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature