Takeaway
- Maternal aerobic exercise during pregnancy may improve cardiovascular function in neonates and possibly beyond.
Why this matters
- In utero programming may affect the development of the fetal cardiovascular system and later cardiovascular health.
- Currently recommended weekly levels of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity maternal aerobic exercise may hold long-term benefits for offspring during pregnancy.
Key results
- Compared with women who did not exercise, aerobic exercise improved fetal right- and left-side cardiac outflow parameters:
- For right-ventricular cardiac function, increases in:
- Stroke volume (P=.001),
- Stroke index (P=.003),
- Cardiac output (P=.002),
- Cardiac index (P=.006),
- Pulmonary valve VTI (P=.02), and
- Pulmonary diameter (P=.02).
- For right-ventricular cardiac function, increases in:
- Prenatal exercise did not appear to affect right- or left-side cardiac function parameters.
Study design
- Prospective, nonblinded, 2-armed randomized controlled exercise intervention trial between 2015 and 2018.
- Women with low-risk pregnancy were recruited and randomly allocated to a supervised aerobic exercise group (n=68) or a nonexercising control group (n=60).
- Fetal echocardiogram was performed at 34-36 weeks.
- Funding: American Heart Association; East Carolina University.
Limitations
- Small numbers in the study.
- Long-term studies in offspring needed.
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