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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Pregnancy Health: Exercise Programs to Prevent Gestational Hypertension

About this resource:

Systematic Review

Source: The Guide to Community Preventive Services

Last Reviewed: February 2019

Workgroups: Heart Disease and Stroke Workgroup, Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Workgroup

The Community Preventive Services Task Force recommends exercise programs for pregnant women to reduce the development of high blood pressure in pregnancy. In these programs, women get regular physical activity from before the 16th week of pregnancy through birth. The programs can take place in health care, home, or community-based settings. They must include 1 or both of these components:

  • Supervised exercise classes that meet at least 3 times weekly for 30 to 60 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity
  • Regular, moderate-intensity walking sessions where women (alone or in a group) walk for 90 to 150 minutes a week or 11,000 steps a day 
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Objectives related to this resource (4)

Improve cardiovascular health in adults — HDS‑01
Little or no detectable change
Reduce cesarean births among low-risk women with no prior births — MICH‑06
Getting worse
Increase the proportion of adults who do enough aerobic physical activity for substantial health benefits — PA‑02
Little or no detectable change
Increase the proportion of adults who do enough aerobic physical activity for extensive health benefits — PA‑03
Little or no detectable change

Suggested Citation

1.

Guide to Community Preventive Services. (2019). Pregnancy Health: Exercise Programs to Prevent Gestational Hypertension. Retrieved from https://www.thecommunityguide.org/findings/pregnancy-health-exercise-programs-prevent-gestational-hypertension