Exercise is very beneficial for our health, especially because of the sedentary lifestyle common to most of us and that causes problems such as obesity and backaches due to poor posture when sitting at the office, amongst other things. During pregnancy, all these normal discomforts of everyday life could be worsened by the changes that pregnancy causes in your body. Exercise can be very beneficial when it comes to alleviating all these discomforts, but certain precautions must be taken.

Appropriate exercise during pregnancy

Gone are the days when it was thought that an expectant woman should avoid any strenuous activity, eat for two and rest as much as possible. Unless your doctor has specifically told you to rest during your pregnancy due to a specific problem, exercise can provide a lot of benefits during this time.  

However, you should take certain precautions, as not all exercises are recommended during pregnancy. Contact sports or those that put the mother at a risk for falls are not suggested, unless you are a professional athlete, and even then you should be very careful.  

Moderate but regular exercise, especially if you already practiced it before you conceived, will provide you with many benefits.

To counteract the discomforts of pregnancy: exercise

Exercising moderately during pregnancy will help you to alleviate the discomforts that are a part of pregnancy and which you can do very little about, because they are a part of the process your body must undergo in order to adapt to the baby’s growth inside of you.  

One of the effects of pregnancy hormones is that they relax the tissues.  This means you could have backaches due to your current posture and weak muscles. Another effect of pregnancy is the changes in your circulatory system, as the blood volume increases considerably during this period.  Swelling of legs and feet is something practically inevitable. There are also changes in your breathing, due to the pressure your baby exerts on your lungs as it grows. And of course, the feeling of tiredness or fatigue that can be a part of the whole pregnancy.

Some of these discomforts could make you feel rather bad, and possibly, if your legs are swollen or you feel exhausted, the last thing you may feel like doing is to walk. But even if you must force yourself to get yourself out of the house to take a walk or go for a swim you’ll see how much better you feel after exercising, especially if you do it regularly.  

When you exercise, the heart pumps more blood and that makes your circulatory system work more efficiently, despite the bigger blood-volume and the fact that your veins are more relaxed. On the other hand, exercise helps move your intestines, thus improving constipation, which is very common in the last months of pregnancy.

The best way to prepare for delivery: exercise

Delivery is an event that will require all of your strength. On the one hand, part of the effort during delivery involves a series of muscular contractions in your uterus and the capacity to undergo stress and to relax makes it easier. On the other hand, during the expulsion phase, you will need to push hard for your baby to be born.

Even if you are going to have a C-section you will need to be in good shape, because the rate at which you recover after delivery is directly related with your physical shape you’re in. Mothers who exercised in one of their pregnancies but not in another report that they felt a big difference and well-being in the pregnancy in which they exercised.

Some physical exercises will specifically help you to prepare for delivery. Kegel exercises are especially recommended to strengthen the pelvic floor.

In short, exercise (following your doctor’s recommendations and taking some precautions) is one of the best tools available, both to help alleviate the inevitable discomfort during pregnancy, and to make recovery a lot easer for you when you deliver the baby.