Health risks for sedentary pregnant women
Wednesday November 4th, 2015
Pregnant women should be discouraged from becoming too sedentary, a conference is to hear today.
Dr
Nithya Sukumar and her team at Warwick Medical School, UK, state that
at present, there are no UK guidelines on the optimum intensity and duration
of physical activity for pregnant women.
The team recruited 1,263 pregnant women to the study. The women report their level of physical activity and emotional wellbeing during the first and late second trimesters of pregnancy.
This suggested that those with depression symptoms tended to sit down for longer periods, even when body mass index, age and socio-economic status were taken into account. Sedentary behaviour was also linked to less moderate or vigorous physical activity in the middle stage of pregnancy.
Women in this group gained more weight during the pregnancy, and had higher blood glucose levels which is associated with a higher risk of gestational diabetes.
Findings are presented at the annual conference of the Society for Endocrinology, held in Edinburgh, UK.
The researchers call for greater focus on women's physical and mental wellbeing from the early stages of pregnancy, in order to protect their health.
Dr Sukumar says: "Pregnant women could benefit from early intervention to improve their physical and mental health and reduce the risks associated with sedentary behaviour. Gestational diabetes can increase the risk of birth complications for the mother and baby and so it is important we minimise this risk by reducing the time that pregnant women spend sitting down."
Co-author Dr Ponnusamy Saravanan added: "Encouraging women to take breaks from sitting down might be an easier public health policy to implement than increasing their physical activity during pregnancy. We believe reducing the sitting time has the potential to reduce pregnant women's risk of gestational diabetes and reduce the metabolic risk factors of their newborns."
Sukumar, N. et al. Longer duration of sitting down in pregnancy is associated with gestational diabetes, greater weight gain and depressive symptoms. Presented on 4 November at the Society for Endocrinology's annual conference 2015.
Tags: Childbirth and Pregnancy | Fitness | UK News | Women's Health & Gynaecology
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