Background Antenatal depression can have harmful consequences for the mother and fetus. Exercise may be a useful intervention to prevent and treat antenatal depression.Objectives This systematic review aims to establish whether there is sufficient evidence to conclude that exercise is an effective intervention for preventing and treating antenatal depression.Search strategy Searches using electronic databases from MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, EMBASE, AMED and PsycINFO were performed.Selection criteria Randomised controlled trials (RCT) that compared any type of exercise intervention with any comparator in pregnant women were eligible for inclusion.Data collection and analysis Meta-analysis was performed calculating standardised mean differences (SMD).Main results Six trials (seven comparisons) were eligible for inclusion. Meta-analysis showed a significant reduction in depression scores (SMD À0.46, 95% CI À0.87 to À0.05, P = 0.03, I 2 = 68%) for exercise interventions relative to comparator groups.The test for subgroup differences in women who were non-depressed (one trial) (SMD À0.74, 95%CI À1.22 to À0.27, P = 0.002) and depressed (five trials) (SMD À0.41, 95% CI À0.88 to 0.07, P = 0.09) at baseline was not significant (P = 0.32). The test for subgroup differences between aerobic (one trial) and non-aerobic exercise (five trials) was also nonsignificant (P = 0.32).Authors' conclusions We found some evidence that exercise may be effective in treating depression during pregnancy but this conclusion is based on a small number of low-moderate quality trials with significant heterogeneity and wide confidence intervals.

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This article explores the benefits to undergraduate learning, and the broader critical significance of, the ‘creative translation’ of Old English literature. First-year students of English language and literature at Oxford University were encouraged to inhabit and understand poetic texts by producing creative, free modern versions that responded to the content, form, style, and sound of the source text. How far this approach helps students is analysed through their own perspectives on the process, gathered via interviews. Their writing is explored as a visible product of their learning, and as a creative-critical response to medieval texts: in particular, did the process of collaborative composition give the students a uniquely experiential insight into Old English poetic practice? Thus some broader conceptual issues in the fields Old English literary studies and translation studies are approached through teaching, learning, and creative-critical practice.

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