Pre-pregnancy exercise can reduce pelvic pain

New research from Norway indicates that frequent exercise before pregnancy may decrease the risk of a woman experiencing pelvic girdle pain.  The research, which was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found that high impact activities, such as jogging, ball games, and aerobics may be most helpful.

The researchers interviewed more than 39,000 women who were expecting their first child between 2000 and 2009.  At 17 weeks they were asked about the type and frequency of the exercise they engaged in in the three months before becoming pregnant and then at 30 weeks they were asked about the frequency and intensity of pelvic girdle pain.

Around 10% of the women said they had experienced pelvic girdle pain by their 30th week of pregnancy, rising to 12.5% among those who said they didn’t exercise in the run-up to their pregnancy.  After taking account of other factors, such as age and weight  high impact exercising between three and five times a week was associated with a 14% lower risk of developing pelvic girdle pain by week 30 of pregnancy and those women who engaged in high impact exercise, such as jogging, high impact aerobics, and ball games were less likely to report pelvic girdle pain.

Researchers concluded that more work should be done in this area but suggested that these results highlighted the importance of promoting regular exercise among women of childbearing age.

Read the research summary here