What's with the spate of press releases from hospitals in Canada recently here on Hacker News? One statement in the press release seems frankly incredible to this father of four children in the United States: "Not so long ago, obstetricians would tell women to take it easy and rest during their pregnancy. Recently, the tides have turned and it is now commonly accepted that inactivity is actually a health concern." What is the definition of "not so long ago" here? My wife exercised (rather more vigorously than what's described in the press release) during all four pregnancies with our children, the first of which was more than twenty years ago. (Our oldest son is now a hacker in New York City.) It would never have occurred to us to do otherwise, and we lived in Seattle, Washington; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Taipei, Taiwan as our children were expected and born, and in all those places it seemed to be recommended for expectant mothers to exercise during pregnancy.

What has changed over twenty years in the United States are weight gain recommendations for pregnant women. As our first son was in utero, the recommended weight gain figures for pregnant women were at the peak that they ever reached. My wife, while exercising moderately but more vigorously than described in the submission here, also dutifully ate far more than she usually eats, and managed to gain up to the full recommended weight gain of that era. Later, the weight gain recommendations were actually revised downwards again. (Whew!) My petite and formerly rather slim wife ends up after four pregnancies with a baseline weight, more than a decade after her last child was born, heavier than she ever was before having children, but still at the low part of the "normal" body mass range for women in the United States, and she still exercises, more vigorously than ever. (She bicycle-commutes year-round here in Minnesota, and we do a lot of our discussion of family business on walks to do grocery shopping or visits to the library that involve us carrying objects home for a mile along our city trail system.)

On the whole, I'm rather astonished that as of the date of this press release submission (LUNDI, 11 NOVEMBRE 2013) there could be any controversy in any part of Canada that the kind of exercise described in the article could be anything but beneficial for expectant mothers and their children. How fast does news about better prenatal care spread around the world? I know that the place where we live, Minnesota, is ahead of the world curve in obstetric practice (indeed, my late father was present for my birth and the birth of two of my three siblings, very unusually for that era, beginning in the 1950s), but I didn't think after living in two countries and having children in both that ANYWHERE doubted the benefit of exercise by pregnant women.

AFTER EDIT: I'll add here some links to official statements about exercise for pregnant women.

"Physical Activity: Healthy Pregnant or Postpartum Women" by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/guidelines/preg...

"Exercise During Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period" by the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists:

http://www.acog.org/Resources_And_Publications/Committee_Opi...

"Exercise in pregnancy" by National Health Service (Britain):

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/pregna...