Exercise in pregnancy is important for normal deliveries Listen to our patient who was exercises
Why is physical activity during pregnancy good for you?
For healthy pregnant women, regular exercise can:
1. Keep your mind and body healthy. Physical activity can help you feel good and give you extra energy. It also makes your heart, lungs and blood vessels strong and helps you stay fit.
2. Help you gain the right amount of weight during pregnancy
3. Ease some common discomforts of pregnancy, such as constipation, back pain and swelling in your legs, ankles and feet
4. Help you manage stress and sleep better. Stress is worry, strain or pressure that you feel in response to things that happen in your life.
5. Help reduce your risk of pregnancy complications, like gestational diabetes and preeclampsia. Gestational diabetes is a kind of diabetes that can happen during pregnancy. It happens when your body has too much sugar (called glucose) in the blood. Preeclampsia is a type of high blood pressure some women get after the 20th week of pregnancy or after giving birth. These conditions can increase your risk of having complications during pregnancy, like premature birth (birth before 37 weeks of pregnancy).
6. Help reduce your risk of having a cesarean birth (also called c-section). Cesarean birth is surgery in which your baby is born through a cut that your doctor makes in your belly and uterus.
7. Prepare your body for labor and birth. Activities such as prenatal yoga and Pilates can help you practice breathing, meditation and other calming methods that may help you manage labor pain. Regular exercise can help give you energy and strength to get through labor.
Exercises to avoid while pregnant
While pregnant, you’ll want to avoid activities that put you at a higher risk of injury. Hormones released during pregnancy cause the ligaments to relax, which increases your chance of injury. Also, due to the extra weight in front of your body, your center of gravity gets shifted and you can easily lose your balance and fall.
In addition, avoid exercises that require you to lie flat on your back for an extended period of time. The weight of the growing uterus and baby can press on the main vein that carries blood back to your heart from your lower body region.
For these reasons, most providers recommend pregnant individuals avoid the following:
1. Contact sports, such as soccer, volleyball and basketball
2. Exercises that put you at risk for falling, such as downhill skiing, off-road cycling and gymnastics
3. Activities that force you to bounce heavily, such as horseback riding
4. Scuba diving, which could put your baby at risk of decompression sickness
5. Exercises that put you at higher risk of getting hit in the abdomen, such as kickboxing or ice hockey
High-altitude activities