Thursday, April 10, 2008

"Maternal exercise benefits mother and infant"

Not only am I keeping the pregnancy pounds in submission, by running through my pregnancy I am giving my little one a kick start on its cardiovascular health. Score!

I wish I could print out this article and tape it to my shirt when I am exercising. Perhaps it would keep those pregnancy "experts" at bay (you know - the ones lacking a MD but not lacking for advice of how I shouldn't be running).

From Yahoo Health/Reuters:

Exercise during pregnancy has cardiovascular benefits not just for the mother but for the developing fetus as well, according to research presented Monday at the 121st annual meeting of the American Physiological Society, part of the Experimental Biology 2008 scientific conference.
...

"When the mom exercises during pregnancy, the unborn baby gets the same type of training effect that you would see in an adult - so you see the lower heart rate and also improved heart rate variability, which is evidence of improvements in the nervous system of the heart."

"Maternal exercise may be the earliest intervention to improve the heart of children and possibly the best," May concluded.

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