Physical activities (exercises or choreses) during pregnancy and mode of delivery in nulliparous women: A prospective cohort study

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate changes in physical activities during pregnancy and the relationship between physical activity and unplanned caesarean sections (CSs). Materials and methods: A cohort study design was carried out. A cohort of 2029 pregnant women was established when they received prenatal care at 18–22 weeks of gestation in a medical center in southwest Iran. Participants were asked to recall their levels of physical activity during pre-pregnancy. The data were processed using Statistics/Data Analysis. To compare activities the chi-square was used to identify significant differences between the groups. A multiple logistic regressian was used to identify the association between activities and delivery mode as well as controlling potential confounding variables. In the analyses, the level of significance was set at P < 0.05. Results: In total, 2029 pregnant women participated in the study, among which 1334 (65.84%) underwent CSs and 692 (34.16%) underwent NVDs. The study indicated the odds ratio of CS was 0.68 (95% CI: 0.47–0.97) for a pregnant woman who increased her level of activity during pregnancy compared to pre-pregnancy. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that regular and standard physical activities during pregnancy can reduce the risk of caesarean section in pregnant women. These findings can be important in convincing health care providers to prescribe regular and standard physical activities for pregnant women during pregnancy.

Keywords

• Physical activity
• Caesarean section
• Pregnancy
• Cohort study
• Iran