Fetal Cardiovascular Response to Maternal Exercise During Third Trimester

Effect of a Specific Exercise Program During Whole Pregnancy on Fetal Heart Rate Response to Maternal Effort in Third Trimester. A Randomised Controlled Trial

Status

UNKNOWN

Phases

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT01723293

Enrollment

160

Registered

2012-11-07

Start date

2010-03-31

Completion date

2015-06-30

Last updated

2014-11-14

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Pregnancy

Keywords

Fetal heart rate, pregnancy, fetus, cardiovascular system

Brief summary

The purpose of this study was to examine the behavior of the fetal heart rate in response to different intensities of acute maternal exercise in training and non-training pregnant women

Detailed description

Fetal heart rate is considered an important index of fetal well-being, especially during the third trimester of pregnancy (Rodney JR, Huntley BJ, Rodney WM, 2012). An increase in the FHR of 5-25 beats per min (bpm) in response to maternal exercise has been established as a normal reaction(Riemann,Kanstrup Hansen, 2000)however the normal FHR response to maternal exercise has remained unclear for several reasons Most of the studies are focused on obtain data in order to examine the fetal heart rate response to maternal exercise using cardiotocography measurements prior to and following maternal exercise

Interventions

BEHAVIORALExercise group

The physical conditioning program included a total of three 55-60 minute sessions per week. Pregnant women started in 9-12 weeks and finished in 38-40 weeks, therefore, an average of 85 training sessions were planned for each participant. All subjects wore a heart rate (HR) monitor (Polar FT7, Finland) during the training sessions to ensure that the exercise intensity was light to moderate. Each session included a 25-minutes of aerobic exercise, 10-minutes of strength exercise and balance exercise as well, and 10-minutes of pelvic floor muscles training.

Study design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

FEMALE

Age

18 Years to 45 Years

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

* Being healthy and able to exercise following American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) guidelines * Being able to communicate in spanish * Giving birth at Hospital Universitario de Fuenlabrada

Exclusion criteria

* Multiparity * Obstetrician complications * Being interested in the study after 18 weeks * Not being regular in physical exercise program * Younger than 18 years old

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Fetal heart rate	Up to 34 weeks	Fetal heart rate was measured before and after maternal walking exercise at 40 and 60% MaxHR

Secondary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Fetal outcomes	After labor	Birth weight
Maternal outcomes	During labor	Type of delivery

Countries

Spain

Contacts

Primary ContactMaria Perales, PhD student

m.perales.santaella@gmail.com913364081

Backup ContactRuben Barakat, PhD

barakatruben@gmail.com913364020

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026