Pregnancy, cold water swimming and cortisol: The effect of cold water swimming on obstetric outcomes.

Cold water swimming is an activity which has received increased attention in recent years, with advertised benefits including improvements in mood, energy and exercise recovery. Cold water swimmers also report experiencing less stress in daily life, the health implications of which may be far-reaching. This may be of particular interest to expecting mothers, as we explore how stress may negatively impact upon birth outcomes. We present the hypothesis that women who regularly enjoy cold water swimming can expect to experience improved obstetric outcomes over those who do not; cold water swimming is a significant physiologically stressful event which may, on habitual exposure, attenuate the stress response, leading to a reduction in negative birth outcomes. Crown Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Citation

Leo Gundle, Amelia Atkinson. Pregnancy, cold water swimming and cortisol: The effect of cold water swimming on obstetric outcomes. Medical hypotheses. 2020 Nov;144:109977

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PMID: 32570161

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