Some doctors still recommend that pregnant women should not exercise while pregnant. What may be very bad advice.
According to research conducted at the University of Montreal, mothers exercising moderately during their pregnancy give birth to better developed babies. Much better: eight-day-old newborns whose mothers exercised moderately while pregnant showed the level of eight-month-old babies whose mothers remained inactive.
The reason is that when a pregnant mother exercises, the heart rate and brain oxygen level of the fetus increases as well, symbiotically. Only 20 minutes of exercise three times a week are enough to improve significantly the plasticity of the baby’s brain and the multiplication of the neuronal connections. Another advantage is that mother’s exercise lowers the risks of pregnancy-related high blood pressure and diabetes, and makes delivery easier.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
