The Influence of Maternal Exercise Type on Heart Measures at One Month

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of aerobic, resistance, and circuit training during pregnancy on infant heart measures at 1 month of age. We hypothesized that there would be differences between the heart measures of infants born to mothers who participated in aerobic, resistance, and circuit training when compared to infants born of women who did not exercise. Method: Pregnant women completed 50-minute sessions, 3 times per week from 16 weeks to 36 weeks of gestation. Women were trained in either aerobic, resistance, or circuit (aerobic+resistance) exercise, or received no training intervention. Heart measures (i.e. cardiac output, ejection fraction, stroke volume, heart rate and fractional shortening) were performed via echocardiography by a (blinded) pediatric sonographer on one-month old infants. Results: There were no differences in maternal demographic measures. One-month infant echocardiographic measures did not differ between groups. After controlling for neonatal activity level, there were significant differences in cardiac output between resistance and control groups (p<0.05). After controlling for maternal variables, we found maternal age had a significant effect on cardiac output and stroke volume in the active state. Discussion: These data showed all normal heart measures regardless of exercise or not. Although further research is necessary, to increase sample size, our current data suggest any type of maternal exercise has functional heart benefits.