New project will increase physical activity among pregnant women
A new research project by Professor Bente Stallknecht’s group aims to increase physical activity among pregnant women. The team behind the project is getting ready to recruit pregnant women who will be delivering their babies at Nordsjællands Hospital, Hillerød.
'FitMum' is a research project between researchers at UCPH especially researchers from Professor Bente Stallknecht's group, Nordsjælland's Hospital in Hillerød, AU and DTU. The aim of the project is to increase physical activity among pregnant women.
"Less than four out of ten Danish pregnant women succeed to achieve 30 minutes of daily physical activity at moderate intensity, as recommended by the Danish Health Authorities," says the team behind the project and continues: "With the FitMum project, we are trying to increase the physical activity among pregnant women and to find out how pregnant women can implement physical activity in their daily life".
By the use of activity trackers, the project will follow three groups of pregnant women who are going to deliver their baby at Nordsjællands Hospital in Hillerød. The first group will be offered structured group workout, the second group will be offered motivating counseling, and the last group will function as control group.
The results from FitMum will contribute with evidence-based knowledge in the form of new, health technology supported exercise programmes for pregnant women that are effective and simple to implement and can provide a basis for optimizing the recommendations for physical activity during pregnancy. The hope is to see a long-term effect of the increased exercise in both mother and child.
The project is supported by the Danish Research Foundations, Copenhagen Center for Health Technology, Familien Hede Nielsens fond, Aase og Ejnar Danielsens fond, Beckettfonden including the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at Nordsjælland's Hospital and University of Copenhagen.
