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Pregnancy Exercise Guidelines For Your Health And Your Baby's Health
Recent studies confirm that regular exercise before, during, and after pregnancy, decreases the risk of a myriad of health problems for both the mother and child.
It is important to know what types of exercises are appropriate, and so you can follow pregnancy exercise guidelines to benefit you both.
Research has proven a direct correlation between birth weight and health of the baby and exercise. Research has also proven a positive link between exercise and maternal health, especially concerning pregnancy related hypertension, preeclampsia, and gestational diabetes, which has been proven to be an indicator of the development of type two diabetes in the mother's later in their lives.
In addition, mothers who exercise before becoming pregnant, and follow pregnancy exercise guidelines establishing good exercise routines during pregnancy, tend to have more positive birthing experiences. Labor and delivery tends to be less traumatic and shorter in duration.
Pregnancy exercise guidelines are important, because as the body changes with pregnancy, certain forms of exercise become more or less beneficial, and modifications must be made accordingly.
Pregnancy exercise guidelines state that contact sports are not appropriate for expectant mothers. As the body changes during pregnancy, the center of gravity changes as well and balancing exercises may become problematic.
Bodily changes during pregnancy also put more strain on the joints, back, and muscles of the expectant woman. For that reason, exercise should be low impact. Exercise that puts a woman at risk for falling (such as horseback riding) should be avoided, as should any exercise that raises the mother's body temperature beyond 102-103 degrees.
Good choices are swimming and water exercise, which eliminates the impact on joints, relieves the strain of exercising with the added abdominal weight, pelvic pressure and back pain, walking, low-impact aerobics, and stationary bicycling.
Pregnancy exercise guidelines stress the fact that the ultimate authority on whether or not you should exercise during your pregnancy is your obstetrician. Certain conditions during pregnancy make exercise dangerous for both the mother and the baby, and if your doctor has told you to avoid exercise, you should follow his directions.
Another indicator that you should not continue a particular exercise is the presence of pain. Anytime an exercise hurts a pregnant woman, she should stop and consult her physician.
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