Assessment of functional capacity in pregnant and 6-weeks postpartum women

Details

Supervisors

Reychler, Gregory

Faculty

Faculté des sciences de la motricité

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences de la motricité, orientation générale

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Pregnancy has an important impact on the physiology of women and hence influences functional exercise capacity (FEC). In current scientific literature, there is no consensus regarding the measurement of FEC in postpartum women. Pregnant and postpartum women have never been studied in the same paper while using adequate guidelines. As pregnant women have sedentary behaviours, we hypothesized that both pregnant and postpartum women would have a decreased FEC compared to a non-pregnant group. METHODS Pregnant and post-partum women were asked to participate in the current study. They performed a 6 minute walking test (6MWT). Peripheral saturation in oxygen, heart rate and dyspnea were measured. Means were compared with an unpaired Students T-test. Pearson’s correlation was used to examine correlations between variables of interest (e.g. 6 minute walking distance, heart rate, dyspnea, weight). RESULTS In total, 72 women volunteered for the study: 32 pregnant women, 9 postpartum women and 31 non-pregnant women (control-group). Distance walked during the 6MWT was significantly higher in the control-group (632m) compared to the pregnant and postpartum groups (p<0,001, p<0,001 respectively). Heart rate and dyspnea at starting line were significantly higher in the pregnant group in comparison with postpartum and control groups (p<0.001, p<0.001 - p=0.015, p=0.030, respectively). CONCLUSION The results of the current study confirm that functional exercise capacity is decreased in pregnant and postpartum women.