Physical activity during pregnancy and postpartum: prevalence and healthcare professionals recommendations

Objective: To assess changes in physical activity (PA) during pregnancy and after giving birth and to explore this according to age and educational level. To analyze whether the health professionals gave recommendations on PA.Design: Observational study. Site: Information is derived from the Galician Risk Behavior Information System.Participants: The target population was Galician women (aged 18-49 years) who delivered between september-2015 and august-2016. Main measurements: The prevalence of walking, physical exercise and PA recommendations were estimated for three moments (pre-pregnancy, pregnancy and after delivery).Results: Walking during pregnancy increased by 34,0% and the performance of physical exercise decreased by 21,0%. After delivery, walking decreased by 37,0% and physical exercise decreased by 32,0% compared to pregnancy. Women of younger age and lower educational level were those who performed less PA. 72,6% and 22,1% of women declared that a healthcare professional recommended PA during pregnancy and after delivery, respectively. Conclusion: The PA performed by women during pregnancy is mainly walking, and there is a concern about the abandonment of PA practice after delivery. Healthcare professionals recommend PA mainly during pregnancy, but little is recommended after delivery. It may be desirable for the improvement of this prevalence to reinforce health action.& COPY; 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).