
Engaging in exercise at least three times a week during pregnancy can reduce a child’s risk of asthma by nearly half. That’s according to the study, “Maternal Exercise During Pregnancy is Associated With Reduced Risk of Asthma in the Child: A Prospective Birth Cohort Study,” published in the journal, Med.
The study was conducted by the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) and Kuopio University Hospital (KUH), both in Kuopio as well as the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) in Helsinki.
"This is the first time we are observing an association between maternal exercise and the development of asthma in the child," said Emma-Reetta Musakka, BM, MSc, a doctoral researcher at UEF.
Maternal exercise during pregnancy can provide positive benefits to both mother and child. It is also known to benefit fetal activity and fetal breathing movements, which support lung development.
The study used data from nearly 1,000 mother-child pairs in the Kuopio Birth Cohort study, KuBiCo, who were followed from pregnancy until the child was seven years old. The study factored in the potential impact of a healthy pregnancy weight, exercise, nutrition, stress and illness. However, researchers did not explain the protective association of maternal exercise with the risk of asthma in the child.
"Our findings strongly suggest that maternal exercise during pregnancy has an independent positive effect on the fetus and on the later health of the child," Dr. Musakka said. "We don't yet know why maternal exercise manifests as a reduced risk of asthma in the child, but one possibility is that it supports fetal lung maturation."
According to researchers, the study’s findings did not indicate exercising more than three times a week would further lower the risk of asthma. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that pregnant women moderately exercise approximately 150 minutes per week.