Objectives
Regular physical exercise during pregnancy is associated with numerous benefits. In general women are not adequately advised on this matter and along with their concerns regarding the potential risks, it contributes to the abandonment or refusal to start exercising during pregnancy.
Content
The aim of this article is to provide a comprehensive literature review, gathering the strongest evidence about the risks and benefits and the prescription of physical exercise. A systematic search was conducted in MEDLINE including articles considered to have the highest level of scientific evidence. Fifty-seven articles, including 32 meta-analysis, 9 systematic reviews and 16 randomized controlled trials were included in the final review.
Summary
Exercise can help preventing relevant pregnancy related disorders, such as gestational diabetes, excessive gestational weight gain, hypertensive disorders, urinary incontinence, fetal macrosomia, lumbopelvic pain, anxiety and prenatal depression. Exercise is not related with an increased risk of maternal or perinatal adverse outcomes. Compliance with current guidelines is sufficient to achieve the main benefits, and exercise type and intensity should be based on women’s previous fitness level.
Outlook
Exercise in pregnancy is safe for both mother and fetus, contributing to prevent pregnancy related disorders. Exercise type and intensity should be adapted to woman’s previous fitness level, medical history and characteristics of the ongoing pregnancy.
Objective To provide a survey of relevant literature on umbilical artery Doppler ultrasound use in clinical practice, technical considerations and limitations, and future perspectives.
Methods Literature searches were conducted in PubMed and Medline, restricted to articles written in English. Additionally, the references of all analyzed studies were searched to obtain necessary information.
Results The use of this technique as a routine surveillance method is only recommended for high-risk pregnancies with impaired placentation. Meta-analyses of randomized trials have established that obstetric management guided by umbilical artery Doppler findings can improve perinatal mortality and morbidity. The values of the indices of Umbilical artery Doppler decrease with advancing gestational age; however, a lack of consensus on reference ranges prevails.
Conclusion Important clinical decisions are based on the information obtained with umbilical artery Doppler ultrasound. Future efforts in research are imperative to overcome the current limitations of the technique.
Este artículo presenta los resultados de un estudio piloto realizado en la Facultad Ciencias de la Comunicación de una universidad de Ecuador, cuyos objetivos fueron describir las conductas de búsqueda de información en Internet de los estudiantes, evaluar su nivel de conocimiento de las TIC e identificar el factor motivacional que les lleva a realizar investigaciones científicas. Se trata de un estudio de enfoque cuantitativo, con alcance descriptivo y de tipo transversal. En una primera fase, se aplicó un cuestionario a una muestra de 60 alumnos para medir su conocimiento de las TIC y otro para conocer los factores que les motivaban a investigar. Posteriormente, se realizaron sesiones de navegación y búsqueda de información en Internet, con 20 estudiantes voluntarios. El diario del investigador sirvió para tomar apuntes de lo observado mientras los alumnos realizaban las tareas de búsqueda. Los resultados de la investigación muestran que el conocimiento de la mayoría de alumnos sobre las TIC es básico o intermedio. El factor que predomina como motivación para investigar es el de formar un hábito personal y contribuir a una cultura de investigación en su entorno. Sobre las conductas de búsqueda de los estudiantes se centran exclusivamente en el acceso a la información sin evaluar su calidad y su origen. Hacen búsquedas simples y como criterio emplean el lenguaje natural. Escogen los tres primeros resultados que les reporta el buscador y copian los textos textualmente obviando el proceso de referenciado. No realizan procesos de análisis o síntesis
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