Linda May
East Carolina University, NC·Physiology
Obesity often runs from one generation to the next, and the cycle can begin before birth. Conditions in the womb, including how much weight a mother gains and how much she exercises, can steer a child toward health or disease.
- Fields
Physiology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Public Health & Epidemiology
- Topics
prenatal exercise
exercise during pregnancy
maternal obesity
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2027
What they work on
- Determine how aerobic, resistance and combined exercise during pregnancy in women with overweight or obesity affect infant heart and metabolic health and growth patterns, compared with infants of non-exercising mothers.
- Determine which exercise mode best improves the mother's own cardiometabolic health, tracking weight, abdominal circumference, blood pressure, lipids and other biomarkers.
- Test whether combined aerobic and resistance exercise yields the best infant outcomes and the highest adherence, following mothers and infants up to 12 months after delivery.
More about the research
Women who are overweight or obese during pregnancy are more likely to have unusually large babies. By age 5, overweight children can already show early signs of metabolic and heart disease. Exercise during pregnancy helps both mothers and babies, but no studies have tested which type of exercise works best when a woman is overweight or obese at conception.
Why it matters
Children of mothers with obesity face higher risks of obesity, high blood pressure and abnormal blood sugar and blood fats from early childhood. Knowing which type of prenatal exercise best protects mother and baby could give obstetric clinicians clear, evidence-based exercise advice for pregnant women with overweight or obesity. This may help break the cycle of obesity and metabolic disease passed between generations.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Sherrie Khadanga
University of Vermont, VT·Medicine & Clinical Research
Test in a randomized controlled trial whether high-intensity interval training plus high-intensity resistance training improves peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) and physical function more than standard moderate cardiac rehabilitation exercise.
Ahizechukwu Eke
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Medicine & Clinical Research
Assess whether dolutegravir-based antiretroviral therapy (TLD) is associated with metabolic syndrome risk in a prospective cohort of pregnant and postpartum women living with HIV and their offspring at four sites in the US and Nigeria.
Jigna Dharod
University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC·Public Health & Epidemiology
Test whether the SMile intervention, combining cash or breast-pump incentives with peer-counselor home visits, raises breastfeeding self-efficacy and exclusive breastfeeding for six months among 120 Hispanic WIC mothers in a randomized trial.
The school
East Carolina University: 5 labs on PI Pages, $73M a year on research, 102 research doctorates a year.
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