Table 1.

Development of country-specific guidelines for physical activity during postpartum

	Postpartum Guidelines
	Australia	Canada	Norway	United Kingdom	United States (ACOG)	United States (USDHHS)
Year	2002, online 2009	2002-2003	2000	2006	2002; reaffirmed in 2009 without changes	2008
Prior versions	none	1996	none	none	1985, 1994, 2002	none
Postpartum Combined with Pregnancy Guideline	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Mentions Physical Activity Guideline for Adults	no	no	published together in same report	no	yes	published together in same report
Language of Guidelines	English	English	Norwegian	English	English	English
Organization	Sports Medicine Australia; endorsed by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology	Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada; Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology	Norwegian Directorate of Health	Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists	American College (now Congress) of Obstetricians and Gynecologists	Department of Health and Human Services
Audience	all who are involved in management of active pregnant women, including health professionals, coaches, and the women themselves	obstetricians, gynecologists, exercise physiologists	health professionals and policy makers	obstetricians, gynecologists	obstetricians, gynecologists	health professionals and policy makers
Evidence process used	narrative review of the evidence published in English to early 2002	MedLINE search 1966-2002; evidence reviewed by the societies and quantified using evaluation evidence from the Canadian Task Force on the Periodic Health Exam	a working group reviewed the scientific literature and summarized the relationship between physical activity and health that provided the scientific rationale for the guidelines	MedLINE search 1980-2004, also searched several other databases	unknown, labelled as “committee opinion”	Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee reviewed scientific literature (1995-8/2007) that prepared a report and provided scientific rationale for the guidelines