AIM: Current US guidelines suggest that pregnant women should exercise regularly during pregnancy, and we examined the neurodevelopment of the children whose mothers had taken that advice. METHODS: This Norwegian study included 188 children whose mothers had followed a structured exercise protocol and 148 control children whose mothers had not. Their cognitive, language and motor skills were assessed at 18 months of age by the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-III and daily life functioning with the Ages and Stages Questionnaire. RESULTS: No significant differences were found between the two groups. Subgroup analyses revealed that the children whose mothers had exercised had a slightly lower motor composite score (mean 97.6, 95% CI 96.0 to 99.2) than the control group (mean 100.0, 95% CI 98.6 to 101.5) (p = 0.03). Boys in the intervention group had lower fine motor scores (mean 10.6, 95% CI 10.3 to 11.0) than boys in the control group (mean 11.5, 95% CI 11.0 to 11.9) (p = 0.01). CONCLUSION: Our main finding was that regular moderate exercise during pregnancy does not adversely affect neurodevelopment in children. The lower motor scores in the subgroup analyses are probably clinically insignificant, but the lower fine motor scores for boys in the intervention group warrant further research.

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