Dr Micheal Sedgley, AMA Chairman of Council, with Jane Kleine, Radio 2NUR

KLEINE: Good morning, Michael. Now, what are the main problems with this report of Dr Murray Smith's?

SEDGLEY: I think that it cannot be totally discounted, and I don't think there is any desire to do that. I mean, you said there that exercise for 30 minutes can cause defects. That's not actually, I don't think, what Dr Smith is saying. What he is saying is that overheating of the foetus, particularly at about eight weeks, can cause abnormality. It can cause damage.

Now, what you have to understand is that the average pregnant woman has many protective mechanisms to prevent this overheating. So that overheating of the woman or heating of the woman doesn't necessarily lead to overheating of the foetus or of the baby in the first eight weeks.

So, in other words, women have protective mechanisms so that the exercise in pregnancy is actually a very good thing but it has to be in moderation and it shouldn't be undertaken if the woman has something else wrong with her.

And, at the end of the day, it's for the woman to weigh up her need for exercise versus what she thinks the risks are. And it's for us to perhaps just to give the advice as to what the risks are. And the risks, I think, of moderate exercise in pregnancy where there's proper warming up done beforehand are absolutely minimal.

KLEINE: So proper warming up would be one thing that would be a good thing to do. Are there any other guidelines as to the difference between just overheating? Or overheating of the foetus?

SEDGLEY: Well, I mean, what I was trying to say is that overheating of the mother doesn't necessarily lead to overheating of the foetus. I mean the mother can warm up and exercise and that doesn't mean that because the mother's temperature has gone up slightly that that of the foetus will.

KLEINE: Yes.

SEDGLEY: It has protective mechanisms to avoid that from occurring.

KLEINE: So we don't have any guidelines as to what the fine line might be between the one and the other?

SEDGLEY: It's not possible to say exactly. I mean, quite a bit of Dr Murray Smith's research is done on guinea pigs, but he also quotes research that's been done on humans on the United States. The Australian Institute of Sport is just about to release guidelines on sport in pregnancy. And these will indicate that it is the woman's choice as to whether she will exercise or not, but they certainly encourage women to exercise in moderation in pregnancy. And if they're going to exercise any more than that, to take the advice of their doctor.

KLEINE: I believe you were involved last year with the Australian Institute of Sport, and perhaps the formation of these guidelines, is that correct?

SEDGLEY: Well, we've had a good - I have had a good input into the guidelines, yes. This all happened as a response to the Netball Association, which was going to ban pregnant women from playing netball because of insurance difficulties. And we all know, now, that there are a lot of areas - problems with insurance - and you can understand the pressures that were on them at that time.

But we came out with the view - and I think the view will be expressed that it actually is the woman's choice as to whether she will play sport or not, and what will happen to her pregnancy. And so, I don't think that the guidelines will not say that women should be stopped from playing any type of sport, but rather that they should look at it properly and make their own decision.

KLEINE: So that would apply to gentle sport like walking around the streets as well as to fun runs or squash that are more high impact sports, I suppose?

SEDGLEY: Yes, I think once you get to fun runs and squash, you know, that starts to get pretty high impact sport. And, at that stage, I would have thought that women would want to take the advice of their doctor and perhaps, if they have a trainer, to get proper exercise to warm up and so on before they sort of hit into the major part of the exercise.

KLEINE: That sounds sensible. And these guidelines from the Australian Institute of Sport are expected fairly soon, are they?

SEDGLEY: Yes, I'm not sure if they've been released yet or not. They're very close to it. And if they have been released, of course, they'll be up on the Australian Institute of Sport website. But they may still be just undergoing some final approval.

KLEINE: Thank you very much, Dr Michael Sedgley, for putting that report into context this morning. Thanks for joining us.

SEDGLEY: Thank you, Jane.

Ends