Do women play sports while pregnant?

The aim of the study was to evaluate the relationship between sociodemographic factors, perinatal data and physical activity in pregnancy, to determine the sources of information about physical health that pregnant women got from and preferred types of sport activities before and during gestation.

The study included 247 pregnant women who fulfilled a questionnaire.

73.7% of respondents declared doing sport in pregnancy. The preferred types of pre-pregnancy activities were walking, riding a bicycle and swimming. It did not change during pregnancy, but more women declared swimming than cycling. In general, the females chose each type of activity less often in pregnancy than before, except pilates, of which that frequency did not change. The respondents declared that they ran, swam, did aerobics, roller skating and rode a bike significantly less often in pregnancy in comparison to the pregestational period. The sociodemographic factors that influence the physical activity were age, education and net income. The incidence of cesarean section was significantly higher among physically inactive women comparing to those who declared physical activity during pregnancy. Fifty-five point one percent of survey respondents declared barriers precluding sport activities. The most of women got the information about physical activity from the Internet, books or magazines and doctor in charge of the pregnancy.

Pregnancy has an impact on the type of chosen physical activity. The sport activities are dependent on age, education and salary. The active women have 30% lower risk for cesarean section in comparison to inactive respondents. Finally, a great group of women gets the information about proper physical activities during pregnancy from unreliable sources.