Group workouts helped new mothers move more and feel better

Physical activity tends to fall during pregnancy and stays low after birth, with the review citing an estimate that 28% of women worldwide are not sufficiently active. Previous reviews of exercise programmes for new mothers examined only individually tailored interventions, or specific groups such as inactive women or those at risk of gestational diabetes or postnatal depression. That left a genuine gap: nobody had systematically asked whether group-based programmes, where mothers train together, actually shift activity levels or other health behaviours in otherwise healthy postpartum women. Given how isolating early parenthood can be, the group format is worth testing in its own right.

The reviewers searched four electronic databases, MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE and PsychInfo, for studies published between January 2000 and October 2020. To qualify, a study had to be a randomised controlled trial of a group-based physical activity programme for postpartum women with no current health conditions and children aged nought to five, and had to report physical activity or other health behaviour outcomes. From 1091 articles initially identified, just six met the criteria. The team synthesised the results narratively and judged the included studies to carry low to medium risk of bias.

Group-based programmes were moderately successful at changing or increasing women's self-reported physical activity and their psychological wellbeing during the first two years of their child's life. The picture weakened when measurement got stricter: the programmes were not successful at shifting objectively measured activity, although only one of the six studies used objective measures at all. The included trials also varied widely in the outcomes they tracked and the methods they used, which makes the overall picture harder to read with confidence.

This review fills a real gap, since earlier syntheses covered individually tailored programmes or narrower populations rather than group formats for healthy new mothers. Its conclusion is as much a verdict on the evidence as on the programmes: six heterogeneous trials cannot settle the question. The authors call for more rigorous randomised trials lasting at least three months, delivering enough weekly group sessions to meet activity guidelines, using objective activity measures, and collecting data on which design features actually appeal to postpartum women.

If you are in the first years after having a baby, this is a reason to think a group exercise programme is a credible route to feeling better psychologically, and possibly to moving more. The honest reading is that the wellbeing benefit looks more dependable than the activity benefit, because the activity gains rested on what women reported rather than what monitors recorded. It also hints that the social side of exercise may carry value of its own. Stronger trials are needed before anyone can call this settled.