Background:
Both maternal pre-pregnancy obesity and excessive gestational weight gain areincreasing in prevalence and associated with a number of adverse pregnancy outcomes forboth mother and child. Observational studies regarding physical activity in pregnancy havefound reduced weight gain in active mothers, as well as reduced risk of adverse pregnancyoutcomes. There is however a lack of high quality, randomized controlled trials on the effectsof regular exercise training in pregnancy, especially those with a pre-pregnancy body massindex (BMI) at or above 30 kg/m2.
Methods:
We are conducting a randomised, controlled trial in Norway with two parallelarms; one intervention group and one control group. We will enroll 150 previously sedentary,pregnant women with a pre-pregnancy BMI at or above 30 kg/m2. The intervention group willmeet for organized exercise training three times per week, starting in gestation week 14 (range12-16). The control group will get standard antenatal care. The main outcome measure will beweight gain from baseline to delivery. Among the secondary outcome measures are changesin exercise capacity, endothelial function, physical activity level, body composition, serummarkers of cardiovascular risk, incontinence, lumbopelvic pain and cardiac function frombaseline to gestation week 37 (range 36-38). Offspring outcome measures includeanthropometric variables at birth, Apgar score, as well as serum markers of inflammation andmetabolism in cord blood.DiscussionThe results of this trial will provide knowledge about effects of regular exercisetraining in previously sedentary, obese pregnant women. If the program proves effective inreducing gestational weight gain and adverse pregnancy outcomes, such programs should beconsidered as part of routine pregnancy care for obese women.Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01243554