Fetus-Placenta-NewbornContinuing regular exercise during pregnancy: Effect of exercise volume on fetoplacental growth☆,☆☆
Section snippets
General
The experimental protocol was approved by the hospital's Internal Review Board for Human Experimentation and used a prospective randomized design in which 80 healthy, regularly exercising (3 or more times each week), non–substance-abusing women were enrolled before pregnancy. At that time, they completed a demographic questionnaire and underwent a physical fitness assessment that included a fixed-rate, progressive incline treadmill evaluation of maximum aerobic capacity (VO2max).10 No blood or
General
Seventy-five of the 80 women who were enrolled had an uncomplicated pregnancy and completed the protocol. One of the women in each group had a complication (1 woman had recurrent mid-trimester bleeding and intrauterine growth retardation; 2 women had premature labor), and 2 women were noncompliant. Of the 75 remaining women, 26 women had been randomized to the Lo-Hi group; 24 women had been randomized to the Mod-Mod group, and 25 women had been randomized to the Hi-Lo exercise group. Compliance
Comment
These data warrant several conclusions. First, continuing a regular regimen of weight-bearing exercise throughout pregnancy influences fetoplacental growth in both a time-dependant and exercise volume–dependant fashion. Women who either maintained the moderate volume of exercise throughout the pregnancy or increased their exercise volume in late pregnancy experienced a significantly slower fetoplacental growth rate than those women who maintained a high volume of exercise in early pregnancy and
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Supported by grants HD21268, HD21109, and RR00080 from the National Institute of Child Health and Development and funds from MetroHealth Medical Center.
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Reprint requests: James F. Clapp III, MD, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, MetroHealth Medical Center, 2500 MetroHealth Dr, Cleveland, OH 44109. E-mail: [email protected].