Perceived Barriers to Physical Activity during Pregnancy

Background: Pregnant women believe that participating in sufficient physical activity promotes health and wellbeing, but barriers that effect women’s ability to exercise requires additional investigation. The aim of this study to identify the barriers of physical activity and to examine the changes in exercise barriers arose throughout pregnancy. Methods: Modified exercise benefits and barriers scale was used to evaluate barriers to exercise among 200 healthy pregnant women prior to, during and after pregnancy. This investigation was part of a large study conducted at the state of NSW, Australia. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics; one way repeated measures ANOVA was conducted to evaluate the changes in exercise barriers during pregnancy. Results: The most important cited barrier was having no one to exercise with pre-pregnancy and where I live not suitable for exercise postpartum. Most women (75.4%) reported that the difficulty of exercise was the most powerful barrier to exercise during pregnancy. There are significant changes in barriers to participation in exercise arise during pregnancy. Conclusion: Increasing level of participation in physical activity during pregnancy should consider exercise barriers, specifically difficulty of exercise. Studies aiming to examine reasons for the changes in barriers during pregnancy are required.