The Relationship between Physical Activity of Pregnant Women in the Last Three Months of Pregnancy and the Properties of the Neonate

The main purpose to this paper is to study the relationship between physical activities of women in the last three month of pregnancy and the properties of the baby at the time of birth. The methodology in this study was of a descriptive type using correlation. The population in this study was women who were in the last month of their pregnancy in Shahrood, who had been hospitalized in Imam Hussein Hospital to bear their children. 76 women were chosen randomly as the sample. To determine the level of physical activity the researcher used PPAQ questionnaire and to determine the properties of the baby a scale and a tape were used alongside with a chronometer. The validity of all the data gathering tools was approved by the experts of the major and the reliability of the questionnaire was measured using Cronbach’s alpha (0.81). To analyze the data SPSS software ver. 16 was used and Kolmogorov- Smironov and Pierson’s correlation coefficient were used to test the hypothesis. The findings show that there is not a significant relationship between physical activities of pregnant women and height, weight and the head circumference of neonates. According to the findings of the research it can be concluded that neonates’ Apgar changes due to physical activities of the mother in the last three months of pregnancy. Therefore it is recommended that pregnant women do not stop their physical activities and continue light physical activities in this period of pregnancy so that the Apgar score could increase for their children.