As little as 20 minutes of moderate exercise three times per week during pregnancy enhances the newborn child’s brain development, according to researchers at the University of Montreal and its affiliated CHU Sainte-Justine Children’s Hospital.

“Our research indicates that exercise during pregnancy enhances the newborn child’s brain development,” explained Professor Dave Ellemberg, who led the study. “While animal studies have shown similar results, this is the first randomized controlled trial in humans to objectively measure the impact of exercise during pregnancy directly on the newborn’s brain. We hope these results will guide public health interventions and research on brain plasticity. Most of all, we are optimistic that this will encourage women to change their health habits, given that the simple act of exercising during pregnancy could make a difference for their child’s future.” Ellemberg, together with his colleagues, Professor Daniel Curnier and PhD candidate Élise Labonté-LeMoyne, presented their findings recently at the Neuroscience 2013 congress in San Diego.

In the not-so-distant past, health professionals commonly advised women to rest and abstain from physical exertion during their pregnancies. But it is now commonly accepted that inactivity is actually a health concern. “While being sedentary increases the risks of suffering complications during pregnancy, being active can ease post-partum recovery, make pregnancy more comfortable and reduce the risk of obesity in the children,” Curier explained. “Given that exercise has been demonstrated to be beneficial for the adult’s brain, we hypothesized that it could also be beneficial for the unborn child through the mother’s actions.”

To verify this, women in the study were randomly assigned to either an exercise group or a sedentary group starting at the beginning of their second trimester. Women in the exercise group did at least 20 minutes of cardiovascular exercise three times per week at a moderate intensity. Women in the sedentary group did not exercise. The brain activity of the newborns, age 8 to 12 days, was assessed using electroencephalography, which enables the recording of the electrical activity of the brain. Soft electrodes were placed on each infant’s head and after the baby fell asleep on his or her mother’s lap, researchers were able to measure auditory memory by means of the brain’s unconscious response to repeated and novel sounds. “Our results show that the babies born from the mothers who were physically active have a more mature cerebral activation, suggesting that their brains developed more rapidly,” explained Labonté-LeMoyne.

The researchers are currently working on evaluating the children’s cognitive, motor and language development at age 1 to verify if these differences are maintained.

A separate study published last month in the journal Experimental Physiology showed that moderate exercise during pregnancy improves the vascular health of offspring right into adulthood.