Immersion Archives - Revista Brasileira de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia

PURPOSE: to identify the responses of heart rate (HR), blood pressure (BP), and hydrostatic weight (HW) in pregnant women immersed up to different anatomic points as far as the xiphoid process. METHODS: eleven pregnant women underwent the following experimental procedure: 10 minutes in recumbent position for evaluation of HR and BP at rest; 2 minutes in standing position for evaluation of initial measures of HR, BP and mass, and one minute for each immersion depth. HR, BP and HW were measured after immersion up to the level of the ankle, knee, hip, navel, and xiphoid process, respectively. Descriptive statistics, test of normality (Shapiro-Wilks), homogeneity of variance test (Levene), one-way ANOVA and the Bonferroni test (SPSS version 8.0) were used, with significance at p<0.05. RESULTS: significant differences were found for HR, diastolic BP and mean BP starting from the xiphoid process (79.1±5.1 bpm; 53.3±6.7 mmHg and 63.9±6.2 mmHg, respectively) and for the systolic BP starting from the navel (92.7±11.1 mmHg). Significant differences were seen in all measurements of percent HW reduction, as in previous studies carried out with non-pregnant women. CONCLUSION: the obtained results showed a decrease in HR and BP on water immersion when compared non-immersion, as well as decreases in HW, which were proportional to the depth of immersion. The decrease in HW was found to influence the decrease in mechanical load imposed on the lower limb joints, since the mechanical load depends on both the vertical force (hydrostatic weight) and on the acceleration with which the body touches the ground. As a result, it is concluded that water is a healthy environment for the population under study, and may be adequate for the practice of physical activities.