- 2 mile walk
- 20 mins elliptical
- weightlifting
Here's a summary of a physician's OB/GYN conference I went to today:
I started my maternity rotation today. The didactic portion is taught by a midwife and she mentioned running a few times and she also looked like she could be a runner so I went and talked to her after class and asked if she took care of patients who were runners and she said "oh yes, lots." She used to be a runner herself but has a bad knee and can't run anymore, poor thing! I asked her what she thinks about running while pregnant and she said that it was funny I should ask that because there was a Ground Rounds conference titled "To Run or Not To Run: Exercising While Pregnant" being held today by the U of U's School of Medicine (basically where doctors and residents gather to hear one of their colleagues present the most current research on certain topics). So I went to the conference and it was great to enjoy the fruits of someone else's labors of combing through research.
Not surprisingly, it is recommended that all pregnant women (with exceptions of course) exercise 30 minutes or more at least 5 times a week. The issue of high heart rate is NOT an issue. Fetal heart rate barely increases, if at all when maternal heart rates increase. Blood is not shunted away from the fetus. And then the issue of high temperature is not really an issue either. It is recommended that pregnant women stay below 39.5. However, tightly controlled tests (using rectal temperatures.. which is close to core temperatures) shows that pregnant women exercising at maximal levels don't even come close to 39.5 degrees. It's just really hard to do. Things to keep in mind, however...pregnant women need to keep hydrated and need to consume enough calories during a workout. Also, pregnant women who exercise regularly usually have lower weight babies, but it wasn't by too many grams (I can't remember the exact figure). This can be a risk factor to the baby, but it seemed like the benefits outweighed the small decrease in the weight of the baby (controlled maternal glucose levels, controlled blood pressure, lower anxiety levels, etc.). Then at the very end, she said "what if a patient is at 14 weeks gestation and they ask if they can continue to train for a marathon." The conclusion was that IF the mother has already been training at a certain level, it's fine to continue as long as she stays hydrated, eats enough and listens to her body. They ended with this saying: "Nature has it's limits." So it's not like the woman is going to be able to run exactly like she did pre-pregnancy anyway. Interesting conference!
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