Physical Exercise & Cardiovascular Adaptation Monitoring in Pregnancy
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Physical Exercise & Cardiovascular Adaptation Monitoring in Pregnancy (‘PE-CAMP’)
IRAS ID
233831
Contact name
Michael J Lewis
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Swansea University
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 6 months, 31 days
Research summary
There is general consensus that antenatal physical exercise can benefit pregnant women, helping to avoid excessive weight gain and reducing the risk of pregnancy complications (e.g. hypertensive disorders, gestational diabetes). We have contributed substantially to knowledge of maternal cardiovascular adaptations to antenatal physical activity (APA) but further mechanistic evidence from a larger-scale study is still needed. Also, the impact of APA on foetal cardiac health is not known yet this is likely to have an major influence on future antenatal exercise recommendations. As we also have experience of foetal cardiac evaluation from our earlier work we propose in this study to undertake a combined foeto-maternal assessment of cardiovascular adaptation to APA. Postpartum evaluation of mother and baby will provide further evidence pointing towards the longer-term benefits of APA.
We will 1) design and implement a 20-week programme of APA; 2) randomly allocate pregnant women to an APA Group (who follow this programme) or a Control Group (who do no formalised APA); 3) characterise maternal and foetal cardiovascular function using non-invasive methods (ECG, blood pressure, stroke volume and echocardiographic assessment in the mother; ECG and echocardiography in the foetus) during periods of rest, exercise and postural manoeuvre; 4) compare maternal/foetal cardiovascular function in the two groups.
Participants will attend three cardiovascular assessment sessions: two during pregnancy (between 18-22 and 32-36 weeks gestation) and once 12 weeks postpartum. We will recruit 500 pregnant women – an ambitious target but one that is important to our goal of providing the first definitive evidence-base of the cardiovascular health value of APA. The project has been awarded a prestigious European Commission Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship (Dr Olga Roldan Reoyo).REC name
Wales REC 6
REC reference
17/WA/0345
Date of REC Opinion
17 Nov 2017
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion