[Travel, sports and pregnancy]

This article is an attempt to review and to discuss critically the pros and cons of physical stress to which a pregnant woman is subjected by sports activities or by travel. The review is based on theoretical considerations as communicated in the article as well as on facts derived from casual observations or systematic studies. Besides the subjective feeling of well-being of the pregnant woman associated with sports activities, objective data favour the preservation or enhancement of fitness by training during pregnancy; other factors in favour of physical load, and the capacity to sustain such load, are the positive reports on the course of pregnancy, on birth, and on the influence exercised on the child by the sports activities of the pregnant mother, the often-quoted experiences collected during sports activities of competitive sportswomen who are pregnant, and the behaviour of pregnant animals. Risks consist in an increased danger of traumatization of mother and foetus resulting from certain types of sports requiring maintenance of balance or sudden changes of movement. Hyperthermia should be avoided, for example, excessively long-lasting sauna baths, or physical activity associated with high stress, such as marathon running, because thermoregulation is hampered during pregnancy in such a way that blood flow of the uterus is affected; besides, there is also the risk of teratogenic effects during the early stages of pregnancy. Excess physical stress leading to exhaustion of the pregnant woman (in animal experiments, in circulatory collapse) definitely exercises an adverse effect on the foetus.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)