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New Research Reveals How To Slash Baby’s Chances Of Asthma

A new study suggests that a mother’s regular exercise during pregnancy can nearly halve her child’s risk of developing asthma. According to research published on October 9 in the journal Med, expectant mothers who exercise three or more times a week can reduce their child’s risk of asthma by about 46%.

This level of protection is comparable to the benefits of avoiding exposure to cigarette smoke during pregnancy, researchers said. Previous studies have already shown that babies have better lung function if their mothers stay active while pregnant, and this new research adds to those findings by directly linking maternal exercise to a lower risk of asthma in children.

“This is the first time we’ve observed a connection between maternal exercise and the development of asthma in children,” said Emma-Reetta Musakka, the study’s lead researcher and a doctoral student at the University of Eastern Finland. The study analyzed data from nearly 1,000 mother-child pairs in Finland, looking at how often the mothers exercised during pregnancy. Common activities included walking, jogging, strength training, and group exercises.

Mothers who exercised fewer than three times a week were more likely to have children who developed asthma, the study found. This protective effect remained strong even after adjusting for other factors like maternal weight, stress, illness, family lifestyle, and dog ownership. The results suggest that regular exercise during pregnancy has an independent and positive impact on a child’s later health.

Senior researcher Pirkka Kirjavainen emphasized the significance of the findings, noting that until now, avoiding cigarette smoke during pregnancy was one of the only proven ways to reduce a child’s asthma risk. The study shows that moderate exercise during pregnancy could offer similar protection, offering a new strategy for preventing asthma before birth. However, the researchers did not find evidence that exercising more than three times a week would provide additional benefits in reducing asthma risk.