Study Reveals Pregnant Women's "Safety Bubble" Expands During Third Quarter

The "safety bubble" of a pregnant woman expands during its third trimester, discovered a new study.

Scientists from the University of Anglia Ruskin and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Addenbrooke Hospital conducted an investigation to determine how the sense of the peripersonal space of 39, a mother changes during pregnancy.

The peripersonal space of an individual is the area of ​​space immediately around his body and is usually considered to be measuring at a distance of about one arm.

For the study, which was published in the newspaper Scientific reportsThe researchers evaluated 85 pregnant women aged 21 to 43 by taking them to an audio-tactile reaction time task 20 weeks after the start of their pregnancy, at 34 weeks and eight weeks after delivery.

The audio-tactile test implied that participants felt patting sensations on their abdomen while being exposed to loudspeaker noise.

The team also evaluated a control group of women who were not pregnant.

The team evaluated 37 pregnant women and 19 female controls during the first test session; 28 pregnant women and 17 female controls during the second test session; and 20 pregnant women and 15 female controls during the third test session.

According to the findings of the study, the feeling of personal space of a pregnant woman increases during the third trimester of her pregnancy.

The researchers say this "could be a mechanism to protect the vulnerable abdomen from injuries caused by surrounding objects."

Dr. Flavia Cardini, a senior lecturer in psychology at Anglia Ruskin University and lead author of the study, says the expanded peripersonal space is "the means by which the brain ensures that the danger remains at arm's length. "

"Pregnancy causes massive and rapid changes in the body, both externally, when the body suddenly changes shape, and internally as the fetus develops," Dr. Cardini adds.

Dr. Cardini states that the results of the study indicate that when the body undergoes "significant changes" during pregnancy, the "maternal brain" also changes the areas close to the body.

The researchers found that during the second trimester of pregnancy and eight weeks after delivery, the women showed no change in their sense of personal space.

Earlier this year, it was reported that exercise during pregnancy could help protect children from obesity later in life.

While previous studies had shown that exercise of obese women during pregnancy could prove to be beneficial for their children, this study showed that it was the same for women who were not obese.

"Based on our findings, we recommend that women – whether they are obese or not – with diabetes – exercise regularly during pregnancy, as this is beneficial to the metabolic health of their children. children, "said Jun Seok Son, a PhD student at Washington State University. study.