WOMEN who exercise in pregnancy could strengthen their baby’s lungs and nervous system, new research suggests.
Experts from the US carried out a small study into the impact of exercise and found potential benefits for unborn babies.
They also suggested exercise may be able to help prevent cot death, but said far more research was needed.
Dr Linda May, assistant professor of anatomy at Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, said her study had yielded “exciting” results.
She said: “When we compared babies whose mothers exercised with babies whose mothers had not, we found foetal breathing and the nervous system were more mature in babies exposed to exercise.”
The mothers-to-be were classified as exercisers if they exercised for 30 minutes three times a week.
