Pregnancy Pathway — Exercise cont’d

MORE?!! You didn’t think that was it? Only a few com­ments on evi­dence as to WHY mov­ing around, burn­ing calo­ries, being strong and learn­ing to relax while preg­nant is ben­e­fi­cial? No, of course not. You know there is more to it, like WHAT move­ment is safe and effec­tive dur­ing pregnancy?

So, what is safe? Well, first, unless you have a very few con­di­tions that your health care provider con­sid­ers unsafe, every woman — fit, cur­rently seden­tary, young or a lit­tle older — can exer­cise safely in preg­nancy. How much of what kind depends on your fit­ness level and exer­cise his­tory. Get med­ical screen­ing first.

If you are fit, you can do vig­or­ous exercise

If you are fit, you just need to learn how to mod­ify some move­ments to accom­mo­date your bio­me­chan­ics. As your body changes, stress on the joints and tis­sues means a lit­tle less jump­ing or bal­lis­tic motion will be more com­fort­able and safer. If you are fit, you can con­tinue with vig­or­ous exer­cise and it will be of ben­e­fit to you and your baby.

If you are not so fit or are seden­tary, find a cer­ti­fied pre/postnatal instruc­tor and join a group where you will have fun, get some guid­ance and be mon­i­tored for safety. How do you find such a per­son? Try our Find A Class or Trainer page.

What is effec­tive? Don’t spend your time on things that may be nice to do but don’t help you focus and pre­pare for birth, relieve dis­com­forts or have the sta­mina for birth and par­ent­ing. There is sub­stan­tial sci­en­tific evi­dence and infor­ma­tion from large sur­veys that these things are helpful.

Car­dio­vas­cu­lar or aer­o­bic activ­ity is the most impor­tant activ­ity you can do. Already fit? Keep work­ing out; join a class if you want sup­port or new friends. If you are seden­tary or some­what active, you can improve your fit­ness by doing at least 20 — 30 min­utes of aer­o­bic activ­ity 3 times a week. Work at a mod­er­ate pace — some­what hard to hard — so that you can talk, but not sing an aria! If you are more than 26 weeks and have not been doing car­dio, you can walk at a com­fort­able pace. Aer­o­bics is key because it gives you endurance to tol­er­ate labor and pro­motes recov­ery.

Strength and flex­i­bil­ity exer­cises that do not hurt and are done cor­rectly are also safe. There are some spe­cial preg­nancy exer­cises that actu­ally help you pre­pare for birth. Essen­tial exer­cises that aid your com­fort, align­ment and birth prepa­ra­tion include:

• Kegels (squeez­ing and relax­ing pelvic floor mus­cles) — squeez­ing strength­ens them and thus sup­ports the con­tents of the abdomen, and learn­ing to release these mus­cles is nec­es­sary for push­ing and birth.

• Abdom­i­nal hiss/compress and C-Curve® - con­tract­ing the trans­verse abdom­i­nal mus­cles reduces low back dis­com­fort and strength­ens the mus­cle used to push and later to recover abdom­i­nal integrity after birth.

Squat­ting

• Squat­ting — get­ting into this posi­tion strength­ens the entire leg in a deeply flexed posi­tion; start seated and use arms for sup­port, sta­bil­ity and safety. Leg strength improves mobil­ity and com­fort in preg­nancy and post­par­tum; plus, deep flex­ion is a com­po­nent of push­ing in almost all positions.

• Strength­en­ing for bio­me­chan­i­cal safety — strength­en­ing some parts of the body helps pre­vent injury to bone sur­faces, nerves and blood ves­sels within joints re-aligned in preg­nancy. This can be done using resis­tance rep­e­ti­tions (weights, bands, cal­is­then­tics or pilates) or iso­met­rics (yoga or bal­let). A respon­si­ble class will focus on upper back (row­ing), push-ups, abdom­i­nals, gluteals, ham­strings, and mus­cles of the lower leg.

• Stretch­ing of areas that tend to get tight — reliev­ing some dis­com­forts through flex­i­bil­ity helps you main­tain a full range of motion. Sta­tic stretches, used in com­bi­na­tion with strength exer­cises or fol­low­ing aer­o­bics, is most effec­tive. Stretch­ing prior to exer­cise tends to pro­duce more injuries than not stretch­ing. Areas need­ing stretch­ing include the chest, low back, ham­strings and hip flex­ors (psoas).

Mind/Body skills are very impor­tant. There are two activ­i­ties that exer­cis­ers con­stantly tell us are a big help in preg­nancy, birth and parenting.

• Cen­ter­ing employs a bal­anced or neu­tral pos­ture, deep breath­ing and mind­ful­ness to help you work in a relaxed way. Ath­letes and dancers call this “the zone.” Start­ing your work­out in asso­ci­a­tion with your body estab­lishes econ­omy of motion, some­thing very use­ful in birth and par­ent­ing, and reduces risk of injury.

• Relax­ation is another key activ­ity; it relieves stress, pro­motes labor in the early stages and helps you enter the zone!

Remem­ber: Birth is a Motor Skill™