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Over half of pregnant women and new mums on lower incomes feel excluded from sport and physical activity
- APF Team
- 11 hours ago
- 6 min read
Being too tired from childcare, limited childcare options and safety concerns revealed as barriers to getting active
Nearly half (47%) of pregnant women and new mums are looking for pregnancy-relevant support to help them get active
Pregnant women and new mothers are being supported by This Girl Can’s We Like the Way You Move campaign
Over half (57%) of pregnant women and mothers with children under the age of one have felt excluded or unwelcome when trying to be active.
The research was conducted by Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign as part of its new chapter to ensure no woman is left behind from the world of sport and physical activity. It found that alongside feelings of exclusion, pregnant women and new mums from lower income backgrounds face a number of barriers to movement.
For many, this can be a time when they disengage from physical activity altogether, and often find it hard to return to. Pregnant women and new mothers are being supported by This Girl Can’s We Like the Way You Move campaign, to start moving for just 10 minutes a day to feel the immediate benefits.
The majority (58%) of new mums and pregnant women say that pregnancy and motherhood negatively affected their physical activity levels, citing being too tired from childcare (46%), having a lack of time with a newborn (38%) and limited childcare options (21%) as barriers to getting active. Changes in their body are also significant, with women losing confidence in their body (39%) and having a different body to work with (31%) as concerns to getting active.
Safety concerns are another major obstacle. Almost a third (32%) of pregnant women and new mums worry about harming their baby or are unclear about what type of physical activity is safe during pregnancy (24%).
When asked what would help them most to get active, nearly half (47%) of pregnant women and new mums said they would benefit from pregnancy relevant support, including pregnancy safe prenatal classes and postnatal sessions where babies are welcome. The findings highlight the importance of affordable, accessible and inclusive opportunities that reflect the realities of pregnancy and early motherhood.
One of the women featured in This Girl Can’s latest campaign, Millie from Grimsby, reflects on her own experience of getting active during her pregnancy and now as a mother to three:
“Swimming helped me enormously during pregnancy, managing both my mental health and the physical pelvic girdle pain I experienced. I enjoyed the instant mood boost it gave me, and even at nine months pregnant, I kept moving.
“After the birth of my son earlier this year, some days I don’t feel like moving at all. But I’ve realised that getting active, even when I’m tired or feeling overwhelmed, just 10 minutes can help me feel better.”
Michelle Ackerley, TV presenter and mum to three-month old daughter Nala, is supporting This Girl Can, reflecting on her own journey: “Having welcomed my baby in October via C-section, the recovery process has been a slow one as my body heals. I’ve been really taking my time and listening to my body, focusing on taking gentle walks. Now that more time has passed, I’ve been introduced to Pilates for post-partum women in my local area, along with other exercises that are safe and supportive during recovery.”
Kate Peers, Head of Campaigns at This Girl Can and Sport England, said:
“Our research shows women have a real lack of confidence in what activity is safe, or that the options available have been designed with them and their babies in mind. That lack of clarity and tailored support can leave women feeling excluded before they’ve even begun.
“This Girl Can is about celebrating the many different ways women are already finding time to move in their lives, in a way that works for them. That might be a gentle walk outside while you’re recovering from birth, slow stretching such as pregnancy yoga, swimming, or moving at home with your baby close by. Even just ten minutes can bring real benefits for mood, energy and confidence.”
Dr Marlize De Vivo, Co-Chief Executive of Active Pregnancy Foundation said:
“When it comes to pregnancy and early motherhood, women encounter a huge volume of information and opinions about what they should and shouldn’t be doing. Too often, this fails to reflect the realities they face, including fatigue, lack of time, and limited childcare.
Our continued work with This Girl Can is helping us reach more women with guidance and support that enables them to stay active throughout their childbearing years in ways that feel safe, achievable and right for them.”
Pregnant women and mothers with children under one-year-old are one of the underrepresented groups This Girl Can is supporting in its current chapter. The We Like the Way You Move campaign returns on 19th January to celebrate every woman’s way of getting active, highlighting how starting with just ten minutes can have immediate benefits to energy, mood, confidence and sleep.
The campaign is rooted in research which found only one in 10 women from lower-income backgrounds* feel they completely belong in the world of sport and physical activity. For women on lower incomes from underrepresented groups – Black women, South Asian Muslim women, pregnant women, mothers with children under one-year-old and 55-74-year-old-women – the feelings of exclusion are even greater.
Peers added: “January can feel like an overwhelming month. We’re bombarded with messages telling us to get to the gym or feel the pressure to start an intense exercise regime, but don’t feel you have to jump straight in. Take your time and start when you feel ready.”
This Girl Can is inviting women everywhere to start with just ten minutes of movement this January, in whatever way works for them, to feel the benefits of getting active.
To find out more, visit https://www.thisgirlcan.co.uk/move.
Media enquiries
For all media queries and interview requests, please contact: thisgirlcanpr@23red.com
Supporting research summary
On behalf of This Girl Can, Savanta interviewed 2,223 women aged 18+ from December 16, 2024 to January 2, 2025. The 15-minute-long survey was conducted online with respondents drawn from Savanta’s research panel and sample partner Lucid. Quotas were used during fieldwork to ensure a nationally representative sample of UK adult women by age, region, SEG (C2DE only), and ethnicity. Boosts for key demographic groups were included to allow for sufficient analysis of the following groups: Asian Muslim women, Black women, women aged 55-74, pregnant women and/or have a child <1 year-old.
*For the purposes of the study, 'women from lower-income backgrounds' refers to females who fall within the C2DE socio-economic groups. This categorisation is based on the widely recognised ABC1 C2DE socio-economic classification scale.
The C2DE classification encompasses:
C2: Skilled manual workers
D: Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers
E: State pensioners, casual or lowest grade workers, and others entirely reliant on welfare benefits
These groups are identified based on occupation and employment status, reflecting a lower income and reduced access to resources compared to those in higher socio-economic groups (A, B, and C1). This definition has been utilised exclusively in recruiting participants for our analysis, ensuring a focused and relevant study population.
About This Girl Can
Launched in 2015, This Girl Can is Sport England’s nationwide campaign (funded by the National Lottery) to tackle the gender activity gap and empower all women and girls to be active - regardless of shape, size and ability. Three-quarters of women say they want to do more sport or exercise, but research shows they are consistently unable to be as active as men, with barriers including fear of judgement and safety concerns. The campaign exists to build women and girls’ confidence by celebrating them moving in their own way - no matter how they look, how they do it or how sweaty they get. After a decade of challenging the culture that holds women back, more than four million women have been inspired to get active compared to when the campaign began. This Girl Can is now focused on engaging women from underrepresented communities to join the movement and enjoy the joy, connection and physical benefits of an active life.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisgirlcanuk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThisGirlCanUK/
About Sport England
Sport England is a public body and invests up to £300 million National Lottery and government money each year in projects and programmes that help people get active and play sport. It wants everyone in England, regardless of age, background, or level of ability, to feel able to engage in sport and physical activity. That’s why a lot of its work is specifically focused on helping people who do no, or very little, physical activity and groups who are typically less active - like women, disabled people, and people on lower incomes.
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