Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums GT Research Exercise during pregnancy: impact on infant memory

Just wanted to share a study from the University of Montreal (Canada!) that found a correlation between maternal exercise during pregnancy and lasting neurological benefits, namely memory, for newborns.

http://www.nouvelles.umontreal.ca/u...born-brain-development-a-head-start.html

I was excited to see this emerging research, as misinformation about exercise during pregnancy is rampant on the maternal health side of the equation, alone, with mothers at low risk of complications often cautioned by their physicians to excessively restrict exercise. Given the high prevalence of extended breastfeeding, cosleeping, and whole food diets here, I'd be curious to hear how many mothers here kept up their exercise during pregnancy and, if they scaled it back, what they changed.

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For anecdata, I exercised a dedicated 8-10 hours per week while pregnant with DS, an equal split of weightlifting and track workouts. These are the amendments I made to my training.

- Trimester 1: heart rate <140bpm for cardio, cut training by 2-4 hours/week
- Trimester 2: substituted standing exercises for supine ones; restricted overhead lifts to shoulder and arm workouts; substituted machine cardio intervals or track sprints for jarring plyometrics (e.g. Box jumps); took longer rest intervals as needed
-Trimester 3 began using bands to assist pull ups; no lifts >100lbs because of joint laxity

I was in better shape when I was pregnant than ever before or sense in my life. Crazy as it sounds, I took private martial arts lessons my entire pregnancy. Obviously no throws after a certain point, but my ability to center my weight got so much better. We did flow drills, and bag work, and lots of stretching and lunges, etc. I was in close touch with my body and just followed my instincts in terms of when to stop doing certain things. We ended each session with a visualization / meditation. Toward the end, DD started riding really low, which caused me pain, but we still got together and did what I could every week until close to the end.

Warning anecdotal evidence ahead:

DD has an extremely high working memory!

Ivy, that's awesome! Judo?

As a side note, I feel wistful at the idea of my pre-DS workout. Maybe I overdid the exercise and boosted his alertness too much?

I have not experienced physicians warning against exercise during pregnancy, nor have I heard that from those in my social circle. It seems, in my area, that doctors already are already encouraging exercise.

Jujitsu and a less well-known form called Ba Gua (Chinese Kung Fu). The crazy thing was that once I had DD, despite feeling great, I had almost no time to get away and exercise. I think you're exactly right about boosting the alertness!

My OB did not give too many specifics other than not to let the HR go too high. For my first, I was already doing just mostly cardio and just went with comfort level and went from working out 2x a day to once a day... I went from the gym to the hospital with just a quick stop in my office to tell my co-workers that I was going to hospital (water broke early).

For my second, I was just too tired to go to the gym with my full time job and a toddler at home. So it was mostly just doing whatever activities we did with DS (walks when weather was nice and so on) and stuff like taking stairs and walking around the office (our cafeteria is a long walk). I was definitely much more tired second time around and by the end, security at work was asking me to just park in visitors parking so they would not have to stress out as they watched me slowly walk across the parking lot in the intense southern summer heat.

DS has an amazing memory, but my lifestyle while pregnant was far from ideal. The first 6 months of pregnancy, I worked 100+ hours a week in a high stress job with a lot of international travel. I had very minimal exercise unless you count running through city streets to meetings or airports to catch flights... The last months of pregnancy, I occasionally did water aerobics in the pool with a bunch of senior citizens. I did eat better during pregnancy and while nursing than ever before.

I exercised during pregnancy with DD, but not more (or less, really) than "usual" and I had some additional complications that meant that I really was restricted.

(Joint laxity takes on a whole new meaning if you are already hypermobile to begin with, let's just say).

I also had to give up anything that appreciably increased BP or heart rate in my third trimester (since I wanted to, um-- have a third trimester, I mean).

I was working 65hr+ weekly, too, which didn't leave a lot of gym time. I had an old-school Cross-country ski machine and that's what I did 6-7 mornings a week. It was pretty high intensity, but I was in VERY good physical condition in those days.

I didn't really change things much during either pregnancy and didn't get warnings about exercise, more like encouragement to exercise moderately.

With ODS (who is PG per testing), I walked some, especially once he was "overdue." I tried using our elliptical machine, but kept getting really weird feelings while using it and gave that up. My diet was pretty good, lots of whatever fish was "acceptable" at that time, but certainly not perfect.

With YDS, I developed horrid pains, which later turned out to be a hole in the ligament that supports the uterus. So I got some fun times at physical therapy.

I can't believe they required a group of women to not engage in exercise during pregnancy since it is well known to be more healthful.

I started my pregnancy very healthy, even doing martial arts class through the first month. Then the morning sickness hit. That pretty much laid me out for almost 3 months. After that I was tired for a while. Then as I got big (and boy did I ever get big!) I ended up with 2 hernias and couldn't lift my legs to walk. I was unable to even bend or I couldn't breathe due to my lungs being compressed. I'm quite small normally at 5 foot with a very short torso, so I don't think I had proper room for a baby!

Basically, I didn't exercise at all. It might have been the least healthy (almost) 9 months of my life. I counted the days until the misery was over. I got most of my calories from chocolate. Despite all of that I had no trouble with blood pressure or any other medical concerns and nearly had my son in the car driving to the birthing center as my total labor was just over 2 hours. So much for all the doom and gloom they preached! I like to think that starting in good shape helped me out

After my son was born we did extended breastfeeding, cosleeping, cloth diapers, and a whole food organic diet. I like to think that I've made up for being a crappy pregnant person with all of my hard work after!

Oh, and my son has an amazing memory But so do I, so maybe it's genetic? Maybe it could have been better, but I don't think I'll beat myself up over it. I'm just glad I survived.