Exercise Can Cut Risk of Pregnancy-Related Diabetes: Study

MONDAY, June 8, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Exercise reduces pregnant women’s risk of developing gestational diabetes and also helps control weight gain, a new review shows.

In the report, published recently in the BJOG: an International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Spanish researchers analyzed 13 studies — including a total of more than 2,800 pregnant women — who normally did little or no exercise. The studies looked at what happened when the women participated in exercise programs.

“Exercise is not something to be feared during pregnancy — the moderate levels of exercise used in these studies had significantly positive effects on health and were found to be safe for both mother and baby,” lead author Gema Sanabria-Martinez, from Virgen de la Luz Hospital in Cuenca, Spain, said in a journal news release.

Women who exercised reduced their risk of pregnancy-related — or “gestational” — diabetes by more than 30…