Pregnant women can safely undertake low-level exercise until their baby is born, researchers said last night.
And the right kind of exercise programme may aid the health of the mother and baby, according to the European researchers.
Researchers in Spain undertook a detailed study of some 160 pregnant women aged between 25 and 35.
None of the women undertook regular exercise – but half agreed to take part in a supervised programme, organised by the Gynaecology and Obstetrics Unit of Hospital Severo Ochoa in Madrid.
The researchers said women who exercised gave birth to babies of a similar size and at a similar time to the women who carried on not exercise.
But they also found that the exercise programme seemed to help women who were overweight before pregnancy, ensuring they did not give birth to babies that were too large.
The findings have been published in the International Journal of Obesity.
Researcher Jonatan Ruiz, now of the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, said: "An exercise regime carried out during the second and third trimester of pregnancy does not harm the health of the foetus."
He added: "Sedentary mothers of higher pre-gestational weight gave birth to heavier new-borns. This relationship, however, was not observed in the group of women who exercised during pregnancy."
Rubén Barakat, Alejandro Lucía, y Jonatan R. Ruiz. "Entrenamiento de fuerza muscular durante el embarazo y tamaño corporal del feto: un estudio aleatorio controlado". International Journal of Obesity, 33(9):1048-57, 2009.
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