This research article examining the influence of maternal exercise during pregnancy on vascular function in the offspring adds vital knowledge to the area of exercise physiology, fetal programming, and obstetrics research. An abundant amount of research has established the role of maternal behaviors during pregnancy on offspring health. However, much of this research has examined adverse maternal behaviors, such as smoking, drinking, stress, and over and undernutrtion, and their influence on offspring health. Research has shown that these adverse maternal behaviors can influence offspring development in utero and produce offspring that are small or large for gestational age. Changes in growth in utero can lead to greater susceptibility for diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease in the offspring later in life. Therefore, the data generated from research examining adverse maternal behaviors has helped health practitioners provide knowledge to pregnant women in order to potentially prevent or decrease the offspring’s risk for developing diseases in adulthood. While considerable research has been conducted examining the role of adverse maternal behaviors, far less has studied the impact of positive maternal behaviors, such as exercise, and in the role they play in fetal programming.
Author(s): Nicole Blaize, Erica Zartman, Thomas Biel, Craig Goergen, William Van Alstine, Ryan Cabot, and Sean Newcomer