Help your baby get a head start
Exercising in pregnancy ‘could be key’
DON’T be alarmed – this dozing tot in the electrode head cap is in fine health.
In fact, he’s providing the proof that mothers who exercise during pregnancy give their children a head start in life.
Researchers found that being exposed to physical activity while in the womb boosts brain development.
Just three 20-minute sessions a week makes a difference.
The Canadian researchers looked at new babies – such as the one in the picture – but believe the benefits could last for life.
‘We are optimistic that this will encourage women to change their health habits, given that the simple act of exercising during pregnancy could make a difference for their child’s future,’ said the team from the University of Montreal.
They asked ten pregnant women to exercise enough to leave them slightly short of breath at least three times a week.
They clocked up an average of almost two hours’ exercise every week – by walking briskly, running, cycling or swimming.
A second group of mothers-to-be did not take part in exercise and so were only moderately active for around ten minutes a week.
When the babies were born, the researchers measured their brain activity using a cap covered in more than 100 electrodes cushioned in sponges.
As each baby slept on its mother’s lap, it was played a bleeping noise repeatedly.
Occasionally, the bleeps were interrupted by a second sound. Brain activity, picked up painlessly by the cap, showed that the babies whose mothers had exercised found it easier to tell the two sounds apart.
This is seen as a sign of maturity and suggests their brains had developed more rapidly.
The annual conference of the Society for Neuroscience heard that previous research had concluded that exercise in pregnancy improves IQ and vocabulary until at least the age of five.
Researcher Élise Labonté--
‘You are training to give birth’
LeMoyne said that exercising in pregnancy could be a simple and inexpensive way to give a baby a head start.
‘Thinking about your child is very good motivation but also do it for yourself,’ she said.
‘You are training to give birth and that is probably going to be the hardest thing you will do in your life.
‘If you are physically fit it could be a little easier to get through it and get back from it.’