Details

Purpose: To describe innovative opportunities to promote an adequate balance 24-hour movement behaviors during pregnancy.

Rationale: Pregnancy is a critical time to promote adequate amounts of movement behaviors, including physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep for maternal and child health. Understanding the interplay of all three movement behaviors presents an opportunity to synergize efforts that have historically targeted only one behavior. Optimizing epidemiological and intervention approaches to improve all three movement behaviors for maximal impact during this critical time.

Objectives: Following this symposium, participants should be able to: 1) outline the importance movement behaviors during pregnancy, 2) identify opportunities to promote physical activity and sleep during pregnancy and post-partum and 3) define multiple modes of assessing movement behaviors during pregnancy and post-partum.

Summary: This symposium will describe the existing evidence on physical activity and sleep in pregnancy, which are traditionally examined as independent behaviors. This state of the evidence from a Canadian group will be followed by two studies that characterize of movement behaviors across pregnancy and post-partum (U.S.-based study) and examines opportunities for movement behavior tradeoffs on pregnancy outcomes (Sweden-based study). First, the chair (Dr. Leanne Redman) will provide an overview of physical activity, sleep, and pregnancy, including their importance for supporting a healthy maternal milieu. The first presenter (Dr. Kristi Adamo) will present results from a series of systematic reviews that informed the Canadian physical activity guidelines for pregnant women. Next, the second presenter (Dr. Chelsea Kracht) will describe using existing device-based measures in pregnancy and post-partum, and report changes in movement behaviors across the perinatal period in a longitudinal cohort. The third presenter (Dr. Marie Lof) will describe a unique method to examine tradeoffs amongst movement behaviors, both cross-sectional and between early and late pregnancy, and these result on pregnancy related outcomes. Finally, the Chair will summarize by addressing contextual considerations for promoting an adequate balance of movement behaviors, along with potential solutions for families, practitioners, and researchers.

Format: Dr. Redman will provide the introduction (5-minutes), then the individual presenters (Drs. Adamo, Kracht, and Lof) will present their findings (15-minutes/presentation). Dr. Redman will conclude with a summary (5-minutes) and facilitate discussion among the panel and participants (20-minutes).

Interaction: We will promote interaction with the i symposium via 1) asking participants to submit questions after each presentation, 2) asking questions in the chat and 3) utilizing closed-ended and open-ended questions/polls throughout using Poll Everywhere.

Speaker