The effect of exercise on level of general health of pregnant women

Prenatal care is one of the most confident and basic services to protect fetomaternal health. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of physical exercise on level of general health of pregnant women.aterials and This was a quasi-experimental clinical trial study. The research samples included 60 primigravid women referred to the prenatal-care clinic of Baghiatallah hospital in Tehran. The participants were randomly divided to two experimental and control groups. The experimental group was trained for 1.5-2 hours in groups with 3 to 4 members and then they began to practice. No training was performed for control group. Level of general health of two groups was investigated by general health questionnaire (GHQ-28), before and 8 weeks after the intervention.Data were analyzed by analytic and descriptive statistical testes.Sixty primigravid women with average age of 26/77 years and average gestational age of 8/13 weeks participated in the study. The education level of majority of participants was highschool diploma and they have no history of exercise during pregnancy. Before intervention, the total scores for GHQ were 38/06 and 29/46 in experimental and control groups, respectively. After intervention, the total scores were 19/2 and 27/5 in experimental and control groups, respectively. T test showed a significant difference between two groups his before and after the intervention (p<0/05). The mean scores for all dimension of general health showed significant difference between two groups of study (p<0/05).Results showed the positive effects of physical exercises on physical and psychosocial dimension of general health of pregnant women.