Exercise During Pregnancy: Can It Instill a Lifelong Love of Exercise in Baby?
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For the mice, which were identical and had identical upbringings, the researchers found that into their adolescence and middle age the mice born to runner mothers were more likely to run on their wheel and move about in the cage than those born to mothers who remained sedentary.
Although this is only one study of mice, and not people, it illustrates how “a mother’s physical activity during pregnancy likely affects the physical activity of her offspring,” said Robert Waterland, a professor of pediatrics and genetics at Baylor who led the study, along with his colleagues Jesse Eclarinal and Shaoya Zhu.
He added that, most importantly, this study is not a criticism of mothers who did not exercise. It is simply another indication that if a mother has her doctor’s blessing to be active during pregnancy, she can make herself healthier and may even give her child that same motivation from birth.
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