Study: Aerobics eases baby deliveries

SAO PAULO, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Pregnant women who did water aerobics had easier deliveries and asked for less pain-killing medicine than women who didn't, a Brazilian study said Thursday.

About half of 71 expectant mothers in the study participated in three 50-minute water aerobic sessions a week over the course of their pregnancies, the study by a team from the State University of Campinas in Sao Paulo, Brazil, reported in the journal Reproductive Health.

While time in labor remained the same between the two groups, "only 27 percent of women in the aqua aerobics group requested analgesia, compared to 65 percent in the control group" of women who did not do the water aerobics, research leader Rosa Pereira said.

"This represents a 58 percent reduction in requests," she said.

And the infants were just as healthy as those born from the women who did not do the water aerobics, the researchers found.

Exercise during pregnancy has been debated, with the main concern being that it may interfere with fetal development or increase the risk of abnormalities.

"We've shown that the regular practice of moderate water aerobics during pregnancy is not detrimental to the health of the mother or the child," Pereira said.

"In fact, the reduction in analgesia requests suggests that it can get women into better psycho-physical condition," she said.