Literature review for - Flourish Paediatrics

During pregnancy, women should avoid doing exercises involving lying on their back after the first
trimester of pregnancy. They should also avoid doing activities that increase the risk of falling or
abdominal trauma, including contact or collision sports, such as horseback riding, downhill skiing,
soccer, and basketball.
3. Levitt
Levitt wrote an article as a preliminary to a set of SLRs.(Levitt, Shaw et al. 2004) She was able to
identify 4 studies of breastfeeding and exercise, but did not list them. As far as can be ascertained
these were never published.
4. Australia National Physical Activity Guidelines (Department of Health and Ageing 2005)
These guidelines make no mention of lactation.
5. Amorim Adegboye 2008 Cochrane review (Amorim, Linne et al. 2007)
Background
Weight retention after pregnancy may contribute to obesity. It is known that diet and exercise are
recommended components of any weight loss programme in the general population. However,
strategies to achieve healthy body weight among postpartum women have not been adequately
evaluated.
Objectives: The objectives of this review were to evaluate the effect of diet, exercise or both for
weight reduction in women after childbirth, and to assess the impact of these interventions on
maternal body composition, cardiorespiratory fitness, breastfeeding performance and other child and
maternal outcomes.
Search strategy: We searched the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group’s Trials Register
(September 2006) and LILACS. We scanned secondary references and contacted experts in the field.
Selection criteria: All published and unpublished randomised controlled trials (RCT) and quasirandomised
trials of diet or exercise or both, among women during the postpartum period.
Data collection and analysis: Three review authors independently assessed trial quality and
extracted data. Results are presented using relative risk for categorical data and weighted mean
difference (WMD) for continuous data. Data were analysed with a fixed-effect model. A randomeffects
model was used in the presence of heterogeneity.
Main results: Six trials involving 245 women were included. Women who exercised did not lose
significantly more weight than women in the usual care group (one trial; n = 33; WMD 0.00 kg; 95%
confidence interval (CI) -8.63 to 8.63). Women who took part in a diet (one trial; n = 45; WMD -
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