Iam a mother: Exercises During Pregnancy

Maintaining a regular exercise routine throughout your pregnancy can help you stay healthy and feel your best. Regular exercise during pregnancy can improve your posture and decrease some common discomforts such as backaches and fatigue. There is evidence that physical activity may prevent gestational diabetes (diabetes that develops during pregnancy), relieve stress, and build more stamina needed for labor and delivery.

If you were physically active before your pregnancy, you should be able to continue your activity in moderation. Don't try to exercise at your former level; instead, do what's most comfortable for you now. Low impact aerobics are encouraged versus high impact.

The pregnant competitive athlete should be closely followed by an obstetrician.

If you have never exercised regularly before, you can safely begin an exercise program during pregnancy after consulting with your health care provider, but do not try a new, strenuous activity.

The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology recommends 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise per day on most if not all days of the week, unless you have a medical or pregnancy complication.

Who Should Not Exercise During Pregnancy?

If you have a medical problem, such as asthma, heart disease, or diabetes, exercise may not be advisable. Exercise may also be harmful if you have a pregnancy-related condition such as:

Bleeding or spotting
Low placenta
Threatened or recurrent miscarriage
Previous premature births or history of early labor
Weak cervix

Talk with your health care provider before beginning an exercise program. Your health care provider can also give you personal exercise guidelines, based on your medical history.

What Exercises Are Safe During Pregnancy?

Most exercises are safe to perform during pregnancy, as long as you exercise with caution and do not overdo it.

The safest and most productive activities are swimming, brisk walking, indoor stationary cycling, step or elliptical machines, and low-impact aerobics (taught by a certified aerobics instructor). These activities carry little risk of injury, benefit your entire body, and can be continued until birth.

Exercises:

The most important exercise for pregnancy is Pelvic Floor Exercise during pregnancy. Strengthening the pelvic muscles is of utmost importance as it holds the bowl, bladder and womb in place. A strong pelvic helps in the in the second stage labour enabling contraction. Also this exercise reduces the chances of stress incontinence developed after delivery

.To practice pelvic exercise you need to contract and release your pelvic muscles repeatedly.
Pull in your belly button towards the spine, draw in your vagina as if trying to stop the flow of urine
Hold this for a few seconds and then release
Ensure your muscles are fully relaxed before repeating the procedure
Practice this exercise for ten rounds every day

WalkingWalking is the best and the safest exercise during pregnancy. It tones your muscles, improves blood circulation, helps draw in more oxygen and relaxes mind to get peaceful sleep. Walking helps to improve your stamina during labour.

Consider small walks at intervals during the day rather than a long walk
Form a schedule like walk on three days in a week for 20 – 30 minutes and gradually increase the time to 30 – 60 minutes
Maintain moderate speed while walking, do not brisk walk
Take a ‘talk test’ while walking to assess your speed i.e. if you can say a full sentence without huffing and puffing your speed is right
Walk with your back straight, do not lean forward or bend backwards
Make sure you wear the right kind of foot wear while walking
Stretch your muscles before and after walking, this improves flexibility