The Effect of Maternal Exercise Mode on One-month Infant Motor Skills

Abstract

Purpose: To determine if the mode of exercise influences 1-month infants neuromotor skills. Methods: One hundred and seventy-two healthy, pregnant women between 18 and 40 years were randomly assigned to aerobic, resistance, a combination of aerobic and resistance exercise intervention or no exercise (control) group. Women in the exercise groups performed 50 min of moderate-intensity, supervised exercise, three times per week; those in control group maintained usual activity. Neuromotor skills were measured at 1 month of age using the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales, 2nd Edition (PDMS-2). Unpaired t-tests were used to compare infants' PDMS-2 subtest percentiles, Gross Motor Quotients, and Gross Motor Quotient percentile between groups. Results: Infants of women with a pre-pregnancy BMI less than twenty-five in the aerobic and combination groups had higher PDMS-2 scores on 3 of the 4 variables analyzed relative to infants of the resistance group and nonexercisers. Infants of women with a pre-pregnancy BMI greater than twenty-five in the resistance group had higher PDMS-2 scores on 3 of the 4 variables analyzed relative to infants of the aerobic, combination, and nonexercising groups. Conclusion: Women who exercise during pregnancy may positively influence the neuromotor development for their infants. Earlier neuromotor development is correlated with higher activity rates in children. These findings could suggest that maternal exercise during pregnancy may reduce the risk of childhood obesity since physical activity is a modifiable risk factor for obesity.