Reimagining prenatal physical activity and exercise as potential therapeutic strategy in promoting maternal health

Abstract

Promoting prenatal physical activity (PA) is one of the health intervention strategies for improving mother outcomes. However, pregnant women are rarely or inadequately informed about the benefits of prenatal PA engagement, which has an impact on their degree of prenatal PA and participation in low-intensity PA. Prenatal PA is reportedly low in many countries around the world, and this is due to a variety of multidimensional constraints. Health promotional and advocacy intervention strategies such as community campaigns or engagements, roadshows, flyers at health facilities, and incorporating prenatal PA into antenatal care may help to scale up the promotion of prenatal PA among pregnant and postpartum women in a variety of settings. Physical activity and exercise should be reconceptualized as a therapeutic strategy for reducing maternal mortality, rather than being limited to biomedical factors.