Table 1.

Development of clinical and public health guidelines for physical activity during pregnancy

		Guidelines
	Australia	Canada	Denmark	Denmark	France	Japan	Norway	Spain	United Kingdom	United States (ACOG)	United States (USDHHS)
Reference	[10, 11]	[3, 12, 13]	[15]	[14]	[16]	[17]	[19]	[20]	[4]	[21]	[2]
Year	2002, online 2009	2002–2003	2011	2008	2005	2003	2000	2001	2006	2002; reaffirmed in 2009 without changes	2008
Prior versions	none	1996	2004, 2005	none	none	none	none	1993	none	1985, 1994, 2002	none
Language of Guidelines	English	English	Danish	Danish	French	Japanese	Norwegian	Spanish	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	National Board of Health	Danish Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology	National Authority for Health	Japanese Society of Clinical Sports Medicine	Norwegian Directorate of Health	Spanish Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics	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 and coaches, and the women themselves	obstetricians, gynecologists, exercise physiologists	health professionals, researchers, and others with interest in the field	health professionals	health professionals	sports medicine physicians, health professionals including obstetricians and gynecologists	health professionals and policy makers	obstetricians, gynecologists	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 thorough review of the evidence on physical activity for pregnant women; an update of the literature reviewed in 2004 for the earlier verison of the guideline	a thorough review of the evidence on physical activity for pregnant women, focusing on eight specific pregnancy related problems; evidence in relation to each problem is quantified	adapted as a clinical guideline from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommendations; further search of French literature and international databases	literature from both Japanese- and English-language journals	a working group reviewed the scientific literature and summarized the relationship between physical activity and health that provided the scientific rationale for the guidelines	a working group provided advice on normal pregnancies	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