The C-section rate (58.9%) was higher than rate recommended by the World Health Organization
(15%) [44] and supported by recent studies [45]. This issue involves many socio-cultural
and economic factors, and although some studies show an association between exercise
and a lower rate of surgical delivery [46,47], analysis of the C-section rate and its association
with exercise training is limited in this study. In other perinatal outcomes (gestational age, prematurity,
newborn weight), there were no differences between pregnant women considered
active and sedentary, confirming previous studies’ results that exercise is safe for the mother
and the fetus [3,5]. However, the cross-sectional study has limited ability to assess causal
effects. In addition, we chose to analyze perinatal variable based on our own exercise criteria
which classified women as active if they reported performing exercise regularly (twice or more
per week, at least 30 minutes per session) at least in one trimester, instead to use ACOG criteria
(150 minutes/week) which might lead to different results.