"I had awesome energy through my pregnancy," recounts Sarah Elizabeth Choiselat of Vancouver, British Columbia. "And I felt beautiful in my pregnant body." Sound too good to be true? It doesn't have to be. Exercise offers many wonderful benefits for you during your pregnancy.
"I cannot say enough of how valuable regular exercise was to me," says Robin Shain of Little Rock, AR. "I gained a reasonable amount of weight during pregnancy and felt good about myself."
Shain also noticed that exercising throughout her pregnancy helped her avoid many of the typical pregnancy discomforts, including swollen ankles and fatigue. "But I gained the greatest benefits with the stretching exercises which helped me remains limber, comfortable and ready for labor when it began."
Another fringe benefit to exercising while you're pregnant is that you tend to heal and bounce back more quickly following birth. “I returned to my pre-pregnancy weight
quickly, and in fact, eventually weighed less than I did before I became pregnant.” says Shain. Aside from all this, exercise can also help to decrease:
- Labor, especially the pushing stage
- Your chances of a c-section
- Your need for medical interventions, such as forceps or vacuum delivery
- Your chances of postpartum depression
But being fit while pregnant doesn't only profit you-its benefits also extend to your baby. From fewer birth defects and higher APGAR scores to a slimmer, calmer infant, why wouldn't you hit the gym? While it's true that most women get the green light from their health care providers to work out during their pregnancies, there are some conditions that make exercising too risky. Always get your provider's permission before you begin exercising.
You don't have to be Ms. Olympia to begin exercising while you're pregnant. It can be as simple as going for a brisk walk-and starting slowly. When Marty Smith from Alameda, CA. became pregnant at the age of 40, she made walking a regular part of her day.
"I have fibromyalgia, and when I first started walking, I couldn't even get to the end of the street without being exhausted,"' she remembers. "The doctor I instructed me to lean against a tree until I could go again and then to walk some more. Before it was all over, I could walk a very long distance without resting."
For Robin Barker of St. Louis, MO, swimming was her thing. "It was so awesome," she says. "It was really as if we had merged and become one...the way the water felt as it went over my belly as she kicked and moved about, as if swimming with me."
And swimming can be a great pick when your joints are sore and achy, and you just want a lift (literally, to your belly, which floats in the water!).
For those of you who love to pound the pavement but thought that you'd have to give it up when you became pregnant, you might not have to, at least not right away. Robin Shain continued on with her six-mile morning jog up until her fifth month of pregnancy, a time when many women feel that it becomes too uncomfortable to continue the jarring motion, and choose to slow down.
"After I quit running, I joined a low-impact step aerobics class that met four nights a week,"' says Shain. "I attended the class regularly through the end of my pregnancy, modifying the steps that were difficult for me." For some women, however, the thought of modifying and trying to motivate themselves to get out there and work out is just too much to think about during this time. If you fit this bill, then a prenatal exercise class may be just what the midwife ordered.
According to Bonnie Berk, RN, founder and president of MOTHER-WELL and star of her latest release, the MOTHERWELL Yoga video, there are many great attributes to working out with other moms in your same situation. For starters, "you are performing exercises specific to the pregnant body, and there is no question that what you are doing is appropriate and safe for pregnancy."
Of course, being with other women who are also expanding and growing larger is nice, too (albeit a relief); and being able to network with them is just another added bonus.
"The socialization benefits of group exercise were so important during pregnancy," explains Shain. "It was a time when I welcomed all opportunities to talk with other women and moms about the life change ahead of me." Exercising while you're pregnant is a wonderful gift to yourself and your little one. And while it carries so many immediate benefits, you're also passing on an inheritance to your child; you're teaching her to always strive for her personal highest level of wellness-no matter what shape she may be in at the time!
* “Exercising for Two”, by Carrie Myers Smith, Every Baby magazine, Issue One.
