Exercise before pregncy key for healthy motherhood

New York, April 3: Expectant mothers who are more fit before pregncy are at lower risk of developing gestatiol diabetes, a study suggests.

Gestatiol diabetes is a condition in which women develop diabetes during the last half of pregncy.

Women with gestatiol diabetes are more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes after giving birth.

“Women are very careful during pregncy with what they eat and the exercise they get. But the study shows women should engage in these healthy behaviours before they get pregnt as well,” said co-author Kara Whitaker, Assistant Professor from University of Iowa.

For the study, published in the jourl Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, the team alysed data from 1,333 women over a 25-year period (1985 to 2011) who enrolled in a tiol Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute study called Corory Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA).

The women completed seven study visits after first being enrolled, reporting whether they had become pregnt or gave birth and whether they developed gestatiol diabetes.

The researchers also performed a fitness exam during the first study visit by testing whether the women could walk for two-minute intervals on a treadmill at increasing speeds and on steepening inclines.

Over the study period, 164 women developed gestatiol diabetes.

Using that information, the research team determined that pre-pregnt women with high levels of fitness had a 21 per cent lower risk of developing gestatiol diabetes than did those with lower fitness levels.

“People interested in becoming more fit can do so by engaging in at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week — 30 minutes per day, five days per week,” Whitaker said.

“Brisk walking would constitute moderate physical activity — jogging would be considered vigorous physical activity,” she added. IANS