A recent study suggests that a child’s risk of developing asthma can be nearly halved if their mother maintains a regular exercise routine during pregnancy.
According to research, exercising three or more times a week while pregnant reduces a child’s asthma risk by approximately 46%. This level of protection is comparable to the benefits of a parent quitting smoking during pregnancy, which decreases the child’s exposure to harmful cigarette smoke.
These findings align with previous studies indicating that children born to mothers who exercise regularly during pregnancy tend to have better lung function. “This is the first time we are observing an association between maternal exercise and the development of asthma in the child,” said lead investigator Emma-Reetta Musakka, a doctoral student at the University of Eastern Finland.
The study analyzed data from nearly 1,000 mother-child pairs in Finland. Mothers reported their exercise habits during pregnancy, with walking (34%), jogging (32%), strength training (29%), and group classes or home workouts (22%) being the most common activities. Results indicated that mothers of children who developed asthma typically exercised less than three times a week.
The protective effect of regular exercise against asthma remained significant even after controlling for various factors, including the mother’s weight, stress levels, health issues, family exercise habits, nutrition, and pet ownership.
“Our findings strongly suggest that maternal exercise during pregnancy has an independent positive effect on the fetus and on the child’s long-term health,” Musakka stated in a university news release.
As reported by medicinenet, these results present a new avenue for reducing asthma risk in children before birth, noted senior researcher Pirkka Kirjavainen from the University of Eastern Finland. “Until now, avoiding cigarette smoke during pregnancy has been one of the only effective ways to lower a child’s asthma risk. It’s intriguing that moderate maternal exercise during pregnancy may have a similarly strong protective effect.”
However, the study did not find that exercising more than three times a week provided additional benefits in lowering asthma risk. “The findings are very promising in terms of asthma prevention. It is highly encouraging to see that by engaging in reasonable amounts of exercise, mothers can significantly influence not only their own health but also the health of their child,” Kirjavainen concluded.