If you are pregnant and have ever pondered idea of starting an exercise program, start now.  You know exercise helps fight obesity and disease, but how can it help your baby be healthier during pregnancy and after?  Although all women should exercise, there are five key times in a woman’s life to develop effective exercise programs: adolescence, pregnancy, after pregnancy, menopause, and as we enter our senior years.  This site helps the pregnant woman understand how exercise can enhance her baby’s neural and physical development and gives her the information she needs to get started today.

Your Baby’s Development Improves by Exercising During Pregnancy

    Would you love to give your baby the best possible chance in childhood?  The way you move your body now, during pregnancy, may improve your baby’s health for years to come.  Dr. James F. Clapp, an international authority on the effects of exercise during pregnancy, states outright, “The newborns of women who exercise tend to be alert, are easier to care for, and do not have trouble with transition of life outside the uterus.”  He goes on to say these healthier babies respond more eagerly to things in their environment, they more readily self-quiet when they are disturbed, and they need much less consolation from others.

    Ten years of Dr. Clapp’s research is detailed in his book, Exercising Through Your Pregnancy, which reveals that mental performance and physical attributes are often significantly better in babies of women who exercised during pregnancy. 

Infants of exercising women do significantly better on the Bayley -Scales of Infant Development (BSID) which are used to diagnose infants with delays in cognitive, motor, and behavioral development.

-Studies show babies born of exercising women do better on standardized intelligence, general intelligence, and oral language tests at one year of age and after. 

-Even five years after birth, children of women who exercised were in better shape than children of mothers who did not exercise.

Exercise Removes Toxins and Stress from Your Baby

    How would you like your baby to receive more nutrients, feel less stress, be given more oxygen, and have a less toxic environment during the nine months of your pregnancy?  Dr. Clapp’s studies indicate that the placenta’s of moms who exercise regularly function better than the placentas of mom’s who don’t exercise.  Since your placenta is your baby’s way of obtaining nutrients and eliminating wastes, this single factor may account for a great deal in your child’s development.

    Dr. Clapp says babies of moms who exercise simply show a “better growth and development pattern in utero.”  And he is not alone.  Helen Varney, who is a professor in Yale University’s School of Nursing, teaches her students that babies of women who exercise have higher Apgar scores of physical health immediately upon birth.  Her textbook, Varney’s Midwifery, impresses that “Overall, the babies of exercising moms show an increase in prenatal function.”  Together, these two make an incredible case that exercising during pregnancy will grow your baby to be stronger, suffer less stress, and enjoy an optimized environment while in your belly.