General Obstetrics and Gynecology: Fetus-Placenta-NewbornFetal heart rate response to strenuous maternal exercise: Not a predictor of fetal distress☆,☆☆
Section snippets
Methods
This study was carried out with 258 nonsmoking primiparous women from 33 to 38 weeks of gestation as confirmed by a first trimester dating scan with uneventful pregnancies. This group is a subgroup of a larger study, with which we are observing the effects of exercise in pregnancy. This low-risk group had varying levels of activity, from none to exercising 3 to 4 times a week. The intensity of exercise was categorized by the frequency and level of exertion by each mother, in keeping with those
Results
Two hundred seventy women with uncomplicated singleton pregnancies were recruited. Twelve of these women were unsuitable to participate for a number of reasons (diabetes mellitus, hypertension, intrauterine growth restriction). Of these mothers, 112 women (43%) took no exercise; 119 women (46%) took mild exercise, and the remaining 27 women (11%) took moderate exercise. The amount of exercise taken differed with age, with significantly smaller proportions of mothers aged ≤25 undertaking mild or
Comment
This study addresses fetal cardiovascular hemodynamics in response to moderate exercise. Originally, Hon and Wohlgemuth 14 hypothesized that fetal heart rate response to maternal exercise could be used as a test for uteroplacental insufficiency. They suggested that exercise could reduce uterine blood flow and expose a compromised placental reserve. Previous studies have not analyzed factors in this population size to assess those mother who are at risk of the development of an abnormal trace in
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Cited by (24)
Impact of maternal physical activity during an uncomplicated pregnancy on fetal and neonatal well-being parameters: a systematic review of the literature
2020, European Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive BiologyCitation Excerpt :Ten of them pertained to acute exposure to acute maternal physical activity and five concerned chronic exposure to such activity. There was one RCT [26] and nine before-after studies without a control group [28,33,41,47,54,56,68,75,76] examining the effect of acute exercises (pooled sample size n = 287). Only three of the studies reported statistically significant results [47,56,76].
Evaluation of floatingline and foetal heart rate variability
2018, Biomedical Signal Processing and ControlCitation Excerpt :Various algorithms have been developed to quantify the FHR parameters, but there is no standardisation useful in clinical applications yet [15]. In addition, methods of estimating the FHRV signal and the definition of its power spectral bands are not yet standardised [17–20], despite the widespread use of the FHRV spectral analysis, since the introduction of electronic foetal monitoring [21–23] to improve the diagnosis of foetal pathologic conditions. Most of the literature [24–26] agrees that, as well as for adults, three bands can be detected in the FHR power spectrum: a very low frequency band (VLF), a low frequency band (LF), and a high frequency band (HF).
Assessment of physical fitness during pregnancy: validity and reliability of fitness tests, and relationship with maternal and neonatal health - a systematic review
2022, BMJ Open Sport and Exercise MedicineSpotlight on the fetus: How physical activity during pregnancy influences fetal health: A narrative review
2020, BMJ Open Sport and Exercise MedicineEffects of prenatal exercise on fetal heart rate, umbilical and uterine blood flow: A systematic review and meta-analysis
2019, British Journal of Sports MedicinePregnancy and lactation: A window of opportunity to improve individual health
2018, Methods in Molecular Biology
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Supported by The Friends of the Rotunda.
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Reprint requests: Mairead M. Kennelly, MRCOG, Research Department, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Rotunda Hospital, Parnell Square, Dublin, Ireland.