BREAKING STEREOTYPES!
PREGNANCY AND EXERCISE: ENEMIES OR FRIENDS?
03.04.2025, 12:00 – 13:30 Lithuanian time (11:00-12:30 CET)
Target audience:
Future and current mothers, pregnant women, families, coaches, exercise and health professionals, and midwives.
Host:
Simona Pajaujiene, PhD: Associate Professor at the Lithuanian Sports University, international expert in exercise training for pregnant and postpartum women, personal and group trainer, healthy lifestyle promoter, grandmother of 3 kids.
The panellists:
Laura Dabašinskienė: Trainer, qualified specialist in training pregnant and postpartum women, and certified and experienced midwife, mother of 2 children.
Asta Verumbickienė: Obstetrician – gynecologist, member of the Lithuanian Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, member of the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology (ISUOG), certified member of the International Ovarian Tumor Analysis (IOTA) group. Currently, she is the Head of the obstetrics and gynecology department of the Tauragė Hospital.
Prof. Vilma Dudonienė, PhD: Professor at the Lithuanian Sports University, teacher and expert in physiotherapy, editor-in-chief of the Journal ‘Rehabilitation Sciences: Nursing, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy’, member of the General Assembly Board of the European Network of Physiotherapy in Higher Education (ENPHE).
Alina Liepinaitienė: Mother, midwife with more than 10 years of work experience, advisor to the director of the Republic of Šiauliai Hospital for nursing (often for international relations). She is a technical consultant in training midwives for the Baltic countries, also doctoral student and researcher at VMU, visiting researcher in obstetrics at the foreign universities. She is an evaluation expert of the „Newborn-friendly Hospital” initiative in Lithuania, lecturer both in Lithuania and abroad on various obstetrics and nursing topics, author and co-author of books.
Gintarė Labanauskienė: a mother of two children, a movement therapist and trainer for pregnant and postpartum women. Her experiences and differences with 2 pregnancies, health issues (postpartum depression) and life with exercise as medicine.
During this webinar we will discuss the main challenges and barriers in promoting and leading a more active lifestyle during pregnancy and the postpartum period. It will be presented the main guidelines for physical activity (PA) and fresh data of people knowledge (or belief in myths) about exercise during pregnancy and the postpartum in Lithuania.
We will discuss the role of a leader – trainer – physiotherapist in creating an active community of pregnant women, mothers and families. Why should a woman be supervised by a competent exercise specialist during the prenatal period? Can a physiotherapist be a trainer? What competencies must a specialist have? What difficulties or challenges arise in creating such a community? Where are the main barriers and fears? Are Lithuanian exercise professionals prepared to work with such women?
During panel discussion with health care providers will be presented the current health status and preparation for childbirth of women coming to give birth, and difference between women who were physically active during pregnancy and those who did not exercise. How important for women is to receive permission, consent, encouragement to exercise from an obstetrician – gynecologist? How does this determine women’s motivation? When is it really forbidden to exercise during pregnancy? We will discuss experiences with miscarriages during pregnancy and explain that there is no need to be afraid of PA, and what most often influences miscarriages. Is cooperation between the health care/medical sector and the fitness/PA sector important? Has anything changed In Lithuania in 10-20 years? Where are the main problems? We also discuss some personal experience from pregnancies and postpartum with and without exercise.
This is one of the national events during the Global Educational Week for Active Pregnancy and Postpartum (31, March to 3, April, 2024).
These initiatives are co-financed by the Minister of Science under the ‘Regional Excellence Initiative’ programme, Poland (within the “NEPPE – global promotion” project, PI: Anna Szumilewicz)
and by national funds through FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., Portugal (within the project Active Pregnancy [2023.14896.PEX], PI: Rita Santos Rocha).
