Physical activity during pregnancy and its influence on delivery time: a randomized clinical trial
Metadata
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Rodríguez Blanque, Raquel; Sánchez García, Juan Carlos; Sánchez López, Antonio Manuel; Aguilar Cordero, María JoséEditorial
PeerJ
Materia
Pregnancy Exercise Labor Pregnancy outcome
Date
2019-02-07Referencia bibliográfica
Rodríguez-Blanque R, Sánchez-García JC, Sánchez-López AM, Aguilar-Cordero MJ. 2019. Physical activity during pregnancy and its influence on delivery time: a randomized clinical trial. PeerJ 7:e6370
Abstract
Introduction. During pregnancy, women often change their lifestyle for fear of harmful
effects on the child or themselves. In this respect, many women reduce the amount of
physical exercise they take, despite its beneficial effects.
Objective. To determine the duration of labor in pregnant women who completed a
program of moderate physical exercise in water and subsequently presented eutocic
birth.
Methods.Arandomized trial was performed with 140 healthy pregnant women, divided
into an exercise group (EG) (nD70) and a control group (CG) (nD70). The women
who composed the study population were recruited at 12 weeks of gestation. The
intervention program, termedSWEP(Study of Water Exercise during Pregnancy) began
in week 20 of gestation and ended in week 37. Perinatal outcomes were determined by
examining the corresponding partographs, recorded by the Maternity Service at the
Granada University Hospital Complex.
Results. The intervention phase of the study took place from June through October
2016, with the 120 women finally included in EG and CG (60 in each group). At term,
63% of the women in EG and 56% of those in CG had a eutocic birth. The average total
duration of labor was 389.33 +/- 216.18 min for the women in EG and 561.30 +/- 199.94
min for those in CG, a difference of approximately three hours (p<0:001).
Conclusions. The women who exercised in water during their pregnancy presented a
shorter duration of labor than those who did not. The difference was especially marked
with respect to the duration of the first and second stages of labor.