Pregnancy Exercise Could Prevent Cot Death by Nisha Obaidullah

Cot death is something that terrifies all new mothers. It’s unpredictable and happens without warning and there is no medically proven identifiable method that can guarantee your baby’s safety.

However, medical science moves pretty quickly and we are discovering new information that improves our knowledge of cot death all the time.

It’s common knowledge by now, that exercising during pregnancy is beneficial for both maternal health and for the developing baby, but a new study by the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences has some evidence to suggest that exercising regularly during your pregnancy could also reduce the risk of cot death.

The study wanted to find if cardiovascular and respiratory functions were improved in the fetus as a result of exposure to maternal exercise.

In particular they were looking for increased “breathing movements” in the fetuses of mothers who exercised during pregnancy as compared with those who did no exercise during pregnancy.

Now obviously your baby doesn’t actually “breathe” whilst he’s snuggled up in your belly as he gets everything he needs through the umbilical cord, but he does practice breathing, which indicates how well his respiratory and nervous system are developing.

What they found was that the breathing movement and the nervous system was better developed in babies of mothers who exercised during pregnancy than those who didn’t.

Dr Linda May explained that understanding more about how to improve the development of babies’ nervous system could help to learn more about the causes of cot death.

” Some researchers think it has to do with something being wrong in the central nervous system, which affects respiration. Babies aren’t able to wake up and breathe for themselves if they need to.”

What this means is that the babies of mothers who exercise during pregnancy have a more mature and developed respiratory system, which suggests that these babies will be less likely to suffer from cot death after birth.

So What Should My Pregnancy Fitness Program Entail?

So what do you really need to do to improve your baby’s nervous system and development?

Well in my pregnancy fitness coaching program I advocate moving every day but doing short-sharp-burst training sessions for 15 minutes on 6 days of the week.

15 minutes is long enough to give you a really good pregnancy workout as long as you know how to workout and how to monitor the intensity of your pregnancy exercise routine.

You should be focusing on whole body resistance based exercises like squats and deadlifts which use all 600 odd muscles in the body, as well as targeting the key pregnancy support muscles like the bottom, the midback and the core.

Combining these types of pregnancy workouts with interval-based cardio sessions of 15-20 minutes will get you maximal results in the shortest period of time.

It is always better to train smarter in pregnancy rather than train harder, so try changing up your pregnancy exercise routine for the next two weeks and watch your pregnancy fitness levels soar!

Copyright 2009 Nisha Obaidullah is the UK's Leading Pregnancy Fitness and Lifestyle Conditioning Coach. To grab a FREE place on her 14 Day Pregnancy Fitness Coaching Program and get in the Best Shape Of Your Adult Life Whilst Pregnant, visit http://www.the9monthclub.com/start