Evidence-Based Exercise in Pregnancy and Postpartum | Dr Margie Davenport

0:00My guest today is Dr.

0:01Margie Davenport, exercise physiologist, professor at the University of Alberta, and one of the world's leading scientists on exercise during pregnancy and the postpartum period.

0:13Margie chaired the 2019 and 2025 Canadian Guidelines and the 2026 International Olympic Committee consensus statement on preconception, pregnancy and postpartum in athletes.

0:26This is a topic drowning in misinformation and unnecessary fear, and Margie's work cuts through it.

0:34Exercise during pregnancy reduces conditions like gestational diabetes, hypertension and preeclampsia by roughly 40%.

0:42Numbers that, if this were a drug, we'd call a medical breakthrough.

0:47We get into what's safe and what isn't, the most persistent and damaging myths, heavy lifting, diastasis recti, the 67% reduction in prenatal depression that nobody talks about, and the systemic failures facing elite athletes returning to sport post-pregnancy.