Taking up jogging now could help budding mums avoid a lot of pain later

If there was a way you could diminish your risk of experiencing teeth-clenching, stabbing pain and discomfort during pregnancy even just a little bit, you'd probably give it a whirl, right? 

If you're in that band of pain-hating women who are thinking about starting a family, then it's probably time you took up running, according to a new study.

Researchers have now revealed that pounding the pavement could later stave off some of the pains associated with pregnancy.

Partaking in high impact activities in particular, such as jogging and aerobics, up to five times a week before you fall pregnant may reduce pelvic girdle pain, the term used to describe the shooting pain around the pubic bone, legs, back and buttocks that arise from joint and ligament changes during pregnancy.

Pelvic girdle pain is quite common in pregnancy, and can sometimes even trickle over into the year after birth.

While these painful symptoms have been linked to a reduction in physical activity during pregnancy, researchers wanted to test whether a regular exercise habit before pregnancy might also affect the risk of developing pelvic girdle pain.

Researchers based findings around data from a large cohort study tracking the health and wellbeing of 39,000 Norwegian women expecting their first child between 2000 and 2009.

Women were quizzed on the type and frequency of exercise they undertook in the three months prior to falling pregnant, as well as the frequency and intensity of their pain over the pregnancy. 

One in 10 women reported experiencing pelvic girdle pain during pregnancy, but for those who admitted to shunning exercise in the lead-up to pregnancy this percentage rose to around one in eight (12.5 percent).

The participants who didn't report pain were more likely to have exercised three to five times a week before pregnancy, as well as engaging in high impact exercise like jogging, ball games or aerobics.

The findings noted that there were no additional health or pain benefits reported for those partaking in exercise more than five times a week.

Researchers also point out that as it's an observational study, no definitive conclusions can be drawn.

"Acknowledging the limitations of our study, these results emphasise the importance of promoting regular exercise among women of childbearing age," the study's authors conclude in a media release.

These finding have been published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.