When Mom Exercises in Pregnancy, Her Baby's Heart Benefits

One of the great things about pregnancy is that it offers a seemingly plausible excuse to indulge — eat a little more dessert (why not, when you're going to gain so much weight anyway) and dial down that hard-core exercise regimen (see first parenthetical). But new research upends that mindset, showing that exercise during pregnancy can actually result in a healthier baby.

That exercising while pregnant is good for mom is hardly news, but now that mothers-to-be know it's good for their babies, it will be that much harder to morph into a couch potato. Maternal guilt can now rear its head months before baby even appears on the scene, prompting Mom to hit the treadmill, hard.

Previous research has indicated that exercise in the first trimester, when the placenta is formed, helps forge extra blood vessels so that there is more opportunity to exchange nutrients between mom and baby.

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EXERCISING DURING PREGNANCY BOOSTS BABY IQ

Mothers who exercise more during pregnancy may give birth to children with higher IQs, according to psychologist Richard E. Nisbett, author of Intelligence and How to Get It.

"Children whose mother exercised 30 minutes a day score around eight points higher on standard IQ tests than children whose mothers were more sedentary," he said.

The Western medical profession once believed that exercise after the first trimester of pregnancy might place the fetus at risk, but new research is increasingly discrediting this idea. The British government recommends that women remain active throughout pregnancy, noting that the more active a woman is, the easier it will be for her body to adapt to the experience of pregnancy and the easier her labor will be.

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EXERCISE DURING PREGNANCY BENEFITS MOTHER AND CHILD

One of the best ways to give children a good start at long-term heart health may be exercise during pregnancy, according to a study conducted by researchers from Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences and presented at the 121st annual meeting of the American Physiological Society.

"When the mom exercises during pregnancy, the unborn baby gets the same type of training effect that you would see in an adult," said researcher Linda E. May, "so you see the lower heart rate and also improved heart rate variability, which is evidence of improvements in the nervous system of the heart. Maternal exercise may be the earliest intervention to improve the heart of children and possibly the best."

Researchers used magnetocardiography, which is a magnetic, noninvasive version of the more well known electrocardiogram (ECG),

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