Exercise during pregnancy lessens chances of heart defects in newborns

A new study gives mothers-to-be (or those hoping to get pregnant) reason to get fit.

The study, published in Nature, found that exercise could potentially decrease the chances of giving birth to a baby with a heart defect. 

The heart is the first organ to develop in a fetus. An embryo has a heart beat within the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. But many times, development of the heart goes wrong and babies are born needing invasive surgery immediately after birth. It’s because the heart develops so early on that doctors have a hard time detecting problems before they occur.

Researchers conducted the study to look into this problem. Initially, they suspected that the age of the mother or her eggs would be the culprit. In their study, they looked at pregnant mice: half were young and the other half were older mothers. They implanted old ovaries in the young mice and young ovaries in the old mice but found that age of ovaries had no impact on whether or not the babies were born with heart issues. When they looked at metabolism, that didn’t seem to be it either. Diet choice did not determine whether the baby would have a heart defect.

Finally, they considered exercise. The team put wheels in the cages making mice run several weeks before pregnancy. The results showed that older mothers who were fit prior to getting pregnant has less chances of giving birth to a pup with heart problems.

For now, these results are just speculative considering that there are obvious difference between mice and people. That said, those who conducted the study may be onto something. They suggest that there is a possibility that the uterus undergoes metabolic changes when a mother is in shape. Plus, they say, exercise is already known to make changes to genes which could be a contributing factor.