ABSTRACT

Over the past few years, there has been a proliferation of health interventions that are testing the efficacy of using prenatal exercise as a strategy to limit gestational weight gain (Jette, 2014). These interventions (which include randomized trials with both animals and humans) are needed, the argument goes, because women who are overweight or obese prior to pregnancy – or who gain too much weight during pregnancy – are possibly ‘programming’ the foetus to be an overweight/obese adult. Physical activity in pregnancy, it is hypothesized, can help to mitigate this risk, enhancing the future life of the unborn child. As stated in one of the interventions (Seneviratne et al., 2014: 2) aptly titled Improving Maternal and Progeny Obesity Via Exercise (IMPROVE): ‘it may be possible to alter programming of the offspring of obese women to a healthier phenotype by interventions in pregnancy.’ When framed in this manner, prenatal exercise clearly serves a political function, taking on eugenic undertones even, as it is positioned as a technique to help a woman be a ‘fit’ mother who gives birth to a baby with a ‘healthier phenotype’ (see also Jette, 2006).