Walking may increase chances of pregnancy

If you are trying to get pregnant then walking can help you.

A new study, conducted at University of Massachusetts Amherst in the US, has found that walking can help increase a woman's chances of conceiving, especially if they have previously suffered pregnancy losses.

"One of our main findings is that there was no overall relationship between most types of physical activity and the likelihood of becoming pregnant for women who had already had one or two pregnancy losses, except for walking, which was associated with higher likelihood of becoming pregnant among women who were overweight or obese," said Lindsey Russo, according to PTI.

The study found that women who engaged in more than four hours a week of vigorous physical activity had a higher chance of getting pregnant than those who did no vigorous activity.

"Lifestyle is definitely relevant to these outcomes because it can have an effect at the molecular level. What we eat and what we do are potential factors we can change to shape our health. So this sort of research is important because it helps provide information on the things people can actually do something about," said Brian Whitcomb, associate professor at the university.

The study analysed 1214 women to find the ability between walking and chances of getting pregnant, known as fecundability, and found that it varied significantly by body mass index. In obese women, walking at least 10 minutes at a time showed an improvement in fecundability.

"We don't know what to make of the finding that high intensity physical activity may have different biological effects than walking, but our study doesnt offer enough detail to get at why vigorous activity would work differently than other levels," said Whitcomb.