HEALTH SCIENCES Keeping active: promoting the benefits of physical activity and exercise for pregnant women Dr Uchenna Okafor and Professor Daniel Ter Goon of the published work being reviewed. provision of conflicting information, shared awareness of the relationship between physical Using different databases, Dr Okafor along with tiredness, discomfort, lack of A activity and exercise and health and Professor Goon retrieved original time, low energy, a lack of opportunity to exercise and safety concerns for brought together doctoral candidate peer-reviewed research articles Dr Uchenna Okafor of the Department reporting on the prenatal physical both the mother and the baby, all of Nursing Science and supervisor activity and exercise practices of functioned to limit their participation in physical exercise and activity. Professor Daniel Ter Goon of the healthcare providers published Department of Public Health at the between 2010 and 2020. The original As a result of this part of their project, University of Fort Hare for a study search identified 82 articles of which Dr Okafor and Professor Goon were focused on the development of 13 were eventually judged to meet the able to identify the need for an an intervention that would benefit criteria for inclusion in the study. approach to providing information pregnant women and their babies. The The review of published work showed about the benefits of physical activity study not only resulted in the award that, although healthcare providers and exercise involving multidisciplinary of a doctoral degree but also the accepted responsibility for counselling health teams drawing on both printed publication of four journal articles. pregnant women about physical materials and social media. The next Over the years, a wealth of evidence activity and exercise, advice was step was for the two researchers to has been produced showing that offered infrequently, with insufficient study some of the healthcare providers physical activity and exercise during time, a lack of knowledge and skills, themselves by engaging in a series of pregnancy are highly beneficial. The inadequate or insufficient training, and interviews with 15 midwives working need for prenatal healthcare providers a lack of resources being most often at health care facilities in the Eastern to create awareness and encourage cited as reasons for this. As a result of Cape. pregnant women to engage in physical this review, Dr Okafor and Professor The findings of this stage in the project activity is therefore very important. The Goon came to conclude that prenatal showed that midwives rarely provided project conducted by Dr Okafor and exercise and activity was a neglected advice on physical activity and exercise Professor Goon began with a scoping component in efforts to improve the to women attending antenatal clinics. review of published work in order to health of pregnant women. When information on physical activity achieve two goals. The first goal was The next step in the project involved a and exercise was provided, it was to assess the knowledge, attitudes study involving more than a thousand often inadequate as midwives had and practices of prenatal healthcare pregnant women receiving antenatal received no training on the benefits of providers in offering advice about care in selected health facilities in physical activity during pregnancy. The prenatal physical activity and exercise. Buffalo City Municipality. The aim of shortage of midwives only exacerbated The second was to identify barriers to this part of the project was to identify the situation with participants in the the provision of this advice. the barriers to women engaging in study noting that they worked to busy In order to conduct the review, the physical activity and exercise. Dr schedules and carried many official researchers drew on the Preferred Okafor and Professor Goon drew on responsibilities. In spite of this, the Reporting Items for Systematic a mixed methods approach, which midwives did recognise the importance Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA), showed that the women in the study of physical activity in improving the a 27-item checklist covering all aspects claimed that a lack of advice or the health of the mothers attending the 37 | University of Fort Hare