Evelia Franco

Regular Exercise Throughout Pregnancy Is Associated With a Shorter First Stage of Labor

Purpose. The aim of the present study was to examine the influence of moderate physical exercise throughout pregnancy on the duration of labor stages. Design. Study was a randomized controlled trial. Setting. The study took place at Hospital Puerta de Hierro and Hospital Severo Ochoa in Madrid, Spain. Subjects. We examined 166 pregnant women (31.6 ± 3.8 years), and all had uncomplicated and singleton gestation. Of these 83 were allocated to the exercise group (EG) and 83 to the control group (CG). Intervention. Women from the EG participated in a physical conditioning program throughout pregnancy, which included 55- to 60-minute sessions, 3 days per week. Measures. Pregnancy outcomes were measured: duration of labor stages, gestational age, weight gain, type of delivery, birth weight, birth size, head circumference, Apgar score, pH of umbilical cord. Analysis. Students unpaired t-tests and χ2 tests were used; p values of < .05 indicated statistical significance. Cohens d was used to determine the effect size. Results. Significant differences were found in the duration of the first stage of labor (EG = 389.6 ± 347.64 minutes vs. CG = 515.72 ± 353.36 minutes; p = .02, effect size Cohens d = .36). The second and third stages did not differ between the study groups. Conclusion. A physical exercise program during pregnancy is associated with a shorter first stage of labor. These results may have important relevance to public health.

Motivación e intención de ser físicamente activo en jugadores de baloncesto en formación: Diferencias en función de la competición

El objetivo del presente estudio fue analizar las posibles diferencias en la satisfaccion de las necesidades psicologicas basicas (NPB) y la intencion de la practica futura en jugadores de baloncesto en formacion segun la liga en la que competian. Se administro, a una muestra de 181 jugadores de baloncesto entre 11 y 16 anos pertenecientes a ligas diferentes (juegos deportivo municipales, federado y federado preferente), el cuestionario PNSE para evaluar las necesidades psicologicas basicas y el MIFA para medir la intencion de ser fisicamente activo. Los resultados mas significativos indicaron que a) existen diferencias significativas entre ligas; b) la relacion entre las NPB y la intencion aumentaba con el nivel de la liga; c) la competencia era la unica variable presente en todas las categorias estudiadas

Exercise during pregnancy is associated with a shorter duration of labor. A randomized clinical trial

OBJECTIVE to examine the influence of an exercise program throughout pregnancy on the duration of labor in healthy pregnant women. STUDY DESIGN A randomized clinical trial was used (Identifier: NCT02109588). In all, 508 healthy pregnant women were randomly assigned between 9 and 11 weeks of gestation to either a Control Group (CG, N = 253) or an Exercise Group (EG, N = 255). A moderate aerobic exercise program throughout pregnancy (three weekly sessions) was used as the intervention. Mann-Whitney and Pearson χ2 tests were performed to analyze differences between groups. Survival techniques through the Kaplan-Meier method were used to estimate the median time to delivery of each group; and Gehan-Breslow-Wilcoxon tests were performed to compare survival distribution between the two arms. The primary outcome studied was the length of the stages of labor. Secondary outcomes included mode of delivery, gestational age, maternal weight gain, preterm delivery, use of epidural, birthweight, Apgar scores and arterial cord pH. RESULTS Women randomized to the EG had shorter first stage of labor (409 vs 462 min, p = 0.01), total duration of labor (450 vs 507 min, p = 0.01) as well as combined duration of first and second stages of labor (442 vs 499 min, p = 0.01). The probabilities of a woman being delivered at 250 min and 500 min (median times) were 19.1% and 62.5% in the experimental group vs 13.7% and 50.8% in the control group (Z = -2.37, p = 0.018). Results also revealed that women in the intervention group were less likely to use an epidural; and that the prevalence of neonate macrosomia was higher in the control group. CONCLUSION A supervised physical exercise program throughout pregnancy decreased the duration of the first phase of labor as well as total time of the first two phases together, leading to a decrease in total labor time.

The Effects of a Physical Education Intervention to Support the Satisfaction of Basic Psychological Needs on the Motivation and Intentions to Be Physically Active

Abstract The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of an intervention to support the basic psychological needs on the satisfaction of these needs, intrinsic motivation, intention to be physically active and some enjoyment-related outcomes in Physical Education. The present study incorporated strategies presented by Standage and Ryan (2012) in a previous study. A quasi-experimental study was conducted with two groups (nexperimental = 30; ncontrol = 23) of 2nd year Secondary Education students aged between 13 and 15 (M = 13.35, SD = .62) by delivering 24 physical education classes. The teacher in the experimental group underwent prior and continual training. The results revealed that the students from the experimental group showed a significant increase in the perception of autonomy and competence. Furthermore, the experimental group showed a greater perception than the control group in the enjoyment related to learning and contents. These results provide information about the efficacy of an intervention programme based on the strategies presented by Standage and Ryan (2012) to foster satisfaction of basic psychological needs and facilitate support for basic psychological needs to promote the development of positive learning-related outcomes.