IMR Press / CEOG / Volume 49 / Issue 11 / DOI: 10.31083/j.ceog4911243
Open Access Review
Why We should Recommend Exercise in Pregnancy?
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1 Department of Physiotherapy, University North, 42000 Varaždin, Croatia
2 Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Merkur University Hospital, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
3 Departmet of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
*Correspondence: mfilipec@unin.hr (Manuela Filipec)
These authors contributed equally.
Academic Editor: Ugo Indraccolo
Clin. Exp. Obstet. Gynecol. 2022, 49(11), 243; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.ceog4911243
Submitted: 14 May 2022 | Revised: 27 June 2022 | Accepted: 11 July 2022 | Published: 9 November 2022
Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Abstract

Objective: This narrative review is presenting the impact of exercise on pregnant women and fetus and provides current recommendations for exercise in pregnancy. Mechanism: Exercise during pregnancy has a numerous effects on both pregnant woman and her fetus. When recommending exercise during pregnancy, it is necessary to keep in mind the physiological responses of the body’s systems during exercise, changes occuring in pregnancy and the influence of this changes on pregnant woman’s body as well as on the fetus and fetal responses to exercise during pregnancy. The type, intensity, duration, and frequency of exercise should be adjusted to the level of physical activity of pregnant women and period of pregnancy in order to achieve clinically significant health benefits. Findings in Brief: Exercise in pregnancy is beneficial for both the mother and her fetus and contributes to the prevention of pregnancy-related disorders. It is recommend to exercise 30 minutes daily five days a week with a tendency to increase the exercise each day in order to accumulate 150 to 300 minutes of exercise per week with moderate intensity. Conclusions: Regular exercise leads to specific adaptation processes of the body systems improving the physical and mental health of pregnant women with positive effect on her fetus.

Keywords
exercise
pregnancy
adjustments
recommendation
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