Is it safe to swim in cold water when pregnant?

Can colder temperatures of open water have a negative impact on pregnancy? Cold water experts Dr Mark Harper and Dr Heather Massey answer this reader question.

“I am pregnant and a keen swimmer. I have membership of a lido but unfortunately the pool is rather cold and I am scared of swimming because I think the temperature might be too cold and have a negative impact on the pregnancy. Is it safe to swim in outdoor pools or open water while pregnant?”

Dr Mark Harper’s answer

The bottom line is that there isn’t much information out there – the best information is probably the survey we put up on the Outdoor Swimming Society (OSS) website.

The good news is that we have nearly finished writing a paper (led by Jill Shaw) which brings together those few studies that are available and recommends further research areas.

Overall – for the previously acclimatised – it appears to be very safe. As always, the basic rules of listen to your body and don’t stay in too long apply.

Dr Heather Massey’s answer

There is little evidence out there at present, but so far, we are coming to conclusions based on people who become pregnant and still swim outdoors. If the pregnancy is progressing normally, there are no complications and the person has been a regular cold-water swimmer prior to becoming pregnant, at the moment there is no evidence of ill effects. The advice would be to take it easy, and really reduce the time in cold water.

Dr Mark Harper is Consultant anesthetist at Sussex University Hospitals. He is a leading expert in the prevention of hypothermia in surgical patients and the therapeutic uses of cold-water adaptation and open-water swimming.

Dr Heather Massey is Senior Lecturer in Sport, Health and Exercise Science and member of the Extreme Environments Laboratory and Clinical, Health and Rehabilitation Research Team (CHaRT) at the University of Portsmouth.