Exercise during pregnancy

Exercising during pregnancy is a great way to keep and stay healthy and adapt to your body’s changes. It is safe to exercise during pregnancy as long as your pregnancy is normal and you have no medical or pregnancy problems. If you are unsure or worried that you should not be exercising during pregnancy, please speak to your midwife or GP who can perform a risk assessment and advise you accordingly.

During pregnancy exercise Keeping active holds many benefits it:

Maintains and improves your current fitness levels
Reduces risks of developing pre-eclampsia, high blood pressure, gestational diabetes
Helps you to control your weight during pregnancy, increases your self image and body awareness
Improves sleep and mood
Reduces constipation
Improves posture and back pain
Strengthens pelvic floor muscles.

Any exercise you have done prior to pregnancy can continue, provided it isn’t a contact activity (like kickboxing for example) and it has been adapted to your trimester of pregnancy – help with this can be provided by a pre/postnatal fitness instructor.

Capture If you are new to exercise you can ensure you go for regular walks or swimming to begin to become active and gain benefit from this during and following pregnancy.

The Physical Activity Guideline infographic from the UK Chief Medical Officers' on the left can also be downloaded here.

No matter what your current activity level, you should continue to do pelvic floor exercises throughout pregnancy and following the birth of your baby.

Although it is extremely important to continue to exercise during pregnancy, it is also important to note that any high impact activity (running, Zumba, anything involving bouncing movements) can be a detriment to your pelvic floor health in the future. Due to the increased strain these activities cause on your pelvic floor during pregnancy, it will increase the risk of developing bladder, bowel, and uterine issues (including incontinence and prolapse). It is more effective to continue to exercise without high impact movements. If you have any queries, you can contact your midwife or GP.

There are many pregnancy fitness classes in the area and these can be found on Where are we? | Mumbler Ltd . These can include pregnancy yoga/pilates and aquanatal.

If you are pregnant and experience any vaginal bleeding, abnormal vaginal discharge or leaking fluid from the vagina, feeling dizzy or faint, chest pain, headaches, muscle weakness, calf swelling or pain, regular and painful period type pains or contractions – STOP EXERCISING AND CONTACT THE MATERNITY UNIT YOU ARE BOOKED AT.