In this article, we will discuss pregnancy and abdominal muscle training.
When a woman becomes pregnant, it becomes difficult for her to do the physical activities she could normally do, and there is a concern that her muscle strength may decrease. Therefore, it is recommended that women continue physical activities such as training even after pregnancy.
In such a situation, there was a study investigating whether training that stimulates the rectus abdominis muscle group, if practiced before or during pregnancy, would have any effect during childbirth.
The results of this study should help women consider whether they should do abdominal muscle training during pregnancy.
The study
A study was conducted to determine whether heterosexual pregnant women who claimed to have done regular abdominal strength training during the pre- and post-pregnancy periods had a reduced risk of cesarean section, instrumental vaginal delivery, and third- and fourth-degree perineal tears.
The study analyzed 36124 preterm pregnant women who participated in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study during the period 1999-2009 and answered questions about their main exposures.
Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the association between exposure and outcome before pregnancy and at 17 and 30 weeks of gestation.
Among the participants, 66.9% reported abdominal strength training before pregnancy, which decreased to 31.2% by the 30th week of pregnancy.
According to the results, there is no significant difference in the endpoints associated with childbirth, regardless of whether training was done or not.
Considerations
The question that needs to be considered in this study is whether the women in question are able to properly perform rectus abdominis muscle group training regardless of pregnancy?
Since the study was based on a questionnaire, would the conclusions be different if the intervention method was changed? There are some questions that need to be answered.The activity of the abdominal muscle group during childbirth is not well understood, and it is also unclear whether training is recommended for safety reasons.
I've seen it stated that it is not recommended due to the risk to the mother and child, so these results may discourage people from trying it.
Even if the study design changes and the results are altered, it is unlikely that abdominal training will be recommended because women do not want to strain their abdomen during pregnancy. I think so.
However, there is a concern that if some people start to do it even when they are pregnant, for reasons such as beauty, they might do it.
Rise E, Bø K, Nystad W. Is there any association between abdominal strength training before and during pregnancy and delivery outcome? Mother and Child Cohort Study. Braz J Phys Ther. 2019;23(2):108-115. doi:10.1016/j.bjpt.2018.06.006
Conclusion
The study suggested that doing abdominal training before or during pregnancy may not have any effect on childbirth.
If it doesn't make any difference whether you do it or not, then you shouldn't do it.
This was a challenging study to introduce.
