A Guide For A Healthy Pregnancy

Exercise

The more active and fit you are during pregnancy, the easier it is when your body shape is changing and you are gaining the extra weight from your child. It also helps you in labour and assists you in getting back into your original shape after the birth.

As your pregnancy progresses, you will have more backache due to the increasing bending of your lower back. To help the backache ease a bit, and strengthen your abdominal muscles for the pregnancy, you can use stomach-strengthening exercises. You can find out about these exercises in antenatal classes, online, or in books.

Another great type of exercise is pelvic floor exercises. This exercise strengthens the muscles on your pelvic floor. These muscles are under a lot of strain during the pregnancy, labour, and childbirth stages. If your pelvic floor muscles are weak, you may find changes like: letting loose some urine as you cough or sneeze. This should be something to be embarrassed about, just be aware that it could continue throughout your pregnancy. Another benefit of doing pelvic floor exercises is that you are reducing the amount of stress you have after you have given birth. This will help you when your newborn baby is keeping you up at night etc. All pregnant women are advised to do pelvic floor exercises.

Some of the main tips for exercise during pregnancy are:

· Don’t go over the top with the exercise and exhaust yourself. A well known rule is that you should be able to hold a conversation as you exercise whilst pregnant. If you are becoming a bit breathless or feel like you are breathing too hard to catch your breath, you are exercising your body too hard

· If you didn’t exercise a lot before pregnancy, don’t go straight into doing hard workouts as you are straining your body. Instead, take up an aerobic exercise programme, or something that will be giving you exercise without exhausting you

· Drink lots of water and other healthy drinks

· Always warm up beforehand, and cool down afterwards

· Try to exercise daily, even if it is only a little bit

· To benefit from it, you don’t have to exercise hard; just to the point where you feel you are working your body a fair amount

· If you attend classes, ensure the instructor is qualified and knows the main details about your pregnancy

A good sport to try out is swimming as the water will support your baby weight. Additionally, some pools may offer aquanatal classes. Once again, if you do attend these classes, make sure the instructor is qualified and knows the main details about your pregnancy.

Some exercises or positions to avoid are lying on your back as the weight of your baby bump could press down on your blood vessels. This could result in you feeling quite faint and drowsy. Also, never taking part in a sport where you are at risk of being physically hurt/ hit, or falling. Another sport to avoid is scuba-diving as the baby will be at risk from the pressure which could cause sickness or gas bubbles to flow through your bloodstream and into theirs. A big sport that most people know not to take part in is something that is over a mile from sea level as you and your baby will be receiving less oxygen and could suffer from altitude sickness.