Perceived Barriers to Exercise in the First Trimester of Pregnancy

Regular physical activity has been shown to improve pregnancy outcomes. We sought to identify barriers to exercise during the first trimester of pregnancy. Five hundred forty-nine pregnant women in their first trimester rated barriers to exercise on a scale of 1 (not a barrier) to 5 (a huge barrier)...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of perinatal education Vol. 27; no. 4; pp. 198 - 206
Main Authors Sytsma, Terin T., Zimmerman, Kate P., Manning, Jennifer B., Jenkins, Sarah M., Nelson, Nancy C., Clark, Matthew M., Boldt, Kristi, Borowski, Kristi S.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York, NY Springer Publishing Company 01.10.2018
Subjects
Advanced Practice
Celebrate Birth
Critical Care, Acute Care, and Emergency
Nursing
Nursing Education
Pediatrics and Neonatal
exercise
barriers
pregnancy
physical activity
women
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Summary:Regular physical activity has been shown to improve pregnancy outcomes. We sought to identify barriers to exercise during the first trimester of pregnancy. Five hundred forty-nine pregnant women in their first trimester rated barriers to exercise on a scale of 1 (not a barrier) to 5 (a huge barrier) and recorded physical activity (minutes/week). Women were placed into one of three classifications, nonexercisers (zero exercise), infrequent exercisers (<150 minutes/week), or exercisers (≥150 minutes/week). The greatest barriers (mean) were nausea/fatigue (3.0) and lack of time (2.6). Exercisers reported significantly lower barrier levels. Nausea/fatigue was a greater barrier for nonexercisers compared to exercisers (3.6 vs 2.8, p < .001). Focusing education and interventions on these barriers may help pregnant women achieve healthy exercise levels.
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ISSN:1058-1243
1548-8519
DOI:10.1891/1058-1243.27.4.198