School of Kinesiology professor and director Beth Lewis, PhD, was featured in the Sunday, October 27 edition of the Star Tribune in a story about her research on the positive effects of exercise on postpartum depression.

Prof. Lewis discussed how research has shown that exercise can effectively combat postpartum depression, or “baby blues,” a common yet sometimes severe and long-lasting form of depression in new mothers. “We found that higher levels of physical activity related to lower levels of depressive symptoms,” she says. However, new mothers, especially those who are low-income or in poverty, face many challenges in trying to carve out time to exercise while responding to the demands and responsibilities of taking care of an infant.

Lewis’s team used motivational interviewing and interventions to help encourage new mothers to make time for exercise. Short, 10-minute periods of moderate intensity exercise at various times of day have proven to be effective, she says. And while exercise doesn’t take away the stressors, “it can actually give the ability to cope.”

Lewis says that health care providers will often prescribe antidepressants for postpartum depression, but their safety and effectiveness has not been proven. She also thinks women during pregnancy and postpartum may be reluctant to take them. “If you look at real, low-cost interventions that people can do to help prevent postpartum depression, exercise is one of them.”

Read the full interview here.