Postpartum exercise may reduce risk and severity of depression and anxiety, reveals study

A new study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine showed that exercise after giving birth decreased the likelihood of postpartum depression and the intensity of anxiety and depression symptoms. Some of the most significant times in the life of a woman are during pregnancy, delivery, and the postpartum phase, during which her physical and emotional health changes. Processes such as uterine involution, postpartum wound healing, and higher abdominal muscular tension return the woman to her pre-pregnancy state throughout the 6–8 week postpartum period.

Because of the potential for depressive disorders, the first month of the postnatal period is crucial. During the postpartum period, women may have 3 primary depressive disorders which were, postpartum psychosis, baby blues, and postnatal depression. A severe mental illness known as postpartum depression appears within a month of giving birth. Between 6.5% and 20% of women have postpartum depression during this time. Therefore, Andy Deprato and his team carried out this study to investigate the impact of postpartum exercise on mother anxiety and depression.

This systematic review conducted using databases up to January 12, 2024, reference lists, suggested research, and manual searches. Non-randomized interventions and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of any language or publication date were included if they included data on the following: the population (postpartum individuals), the intervention (objective or subjective measures of exercise intensity, frequency, duration, type, volume, or mode of delivery), the comparator (no exercise or alternative exercise measures), and the outcome (prevalence of postpartum anxiety, depression, and/or symptom severity).

There were 35 studies in all (n=4072). RCTs with moderate confidence data shown that exercise-only therapies decreased the likelihood of postpartum depression by 45% when compared to no exercise, as well as the intensity of postpartum anxiety and depressive symptoms. The effect of postpartum exercise on the likelihood of postpartum anxiety was not evaluated in any of the included research.

Postpartum adults required to accrue at least 350 MET-min of exercise each week (e.g., 80 minutes of moderate intensity exercise such as brisk walking, stationary cycling, water aerobics, or resistance training) in order to obtain at least a modest decrease in the severity of postpartum depression symptoms. Overall, exercise therapies reduced the risk of major postpartum disorder by almost half.

Source:

Deprato, A., Ruchat, S.-M., Ali, M. U., Cai, C., Forte, M., Gierc, M., Meyer, S., Sjwed, T. N., Shirazi, S., Matenchuk, B. A., Jones, P. A. T., Sivak, A., & Davenport, M. H. (2024). Impact of postpartum physical activity on maternal depression and anxiety: a systematic review and meta-analysis. In British Journal of Sports Medicine (p. bjsports-2024-108478). BMJ. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2024-108478