At one time, pregnant women were warned not to undertake anything physically demanding in the latter part of pregnancy, but some obstetricians have been encouraging women to walk or do other exercise during pregnancy. A new study from Montreal shows that women who exercise three times a week for at least 20 minutes at a time for the last half of their terms offer their babies a better head start.
The small study had nine women do exercise such as walking, swimming or cycling. Nine other women remained sedentary. When the newborns were just 8 to 12 days old, the investigators put electrodes on their heads to capture their brain waves while they were sleeping. The babies were exposed to both new and familiar sounds; the babies of exercising mothers demonstrated brain wave responses that were more mature than those of the other babies. The scientists will continue to follow up on testing the infants as they grow older to see if this advantage holds up.
[Neuroscience 2013 conference]
