Exercising During Pregnancy May Protect Your Child's Brain…

Exercising During Pregnancy May Protect Your Child's Brain From Future Stress What a mother does during pregnancy may shape how resilient her child's brain is to stress decades later: at least, that's what new animal research suggests. A study published in Behavioural Brain Research investigated something genuinely important, whether exercise during pregnancy can protect offspring against the long-term effects of early-life stress. Researchers used a well-established model called maternal separation, a recognised way of studying early-life stress in animals, known to cause lasting changes in mood, memory, and brain structure into adulthood. Pregnant rats were divided into two groups, one with regular access to exercise throughout pregnancy, and one sedentary group. Their offspring were then divided into four groups based on whether their mothers exercised and whether they experienced early-life stress after birth. As expected, offspring who experienced maternal separation showed increased depressive-like be