Pregnancy Exercises
Exercise is healthy for pregnant women and their unborn babies; thus, midwives must provide women with guidelines for safe physical activity and support them throughout their pregnancies. Midwives should promote physical activity during pregnancy as the primary healthcare providers for low-risk pregnant women and include activity-related discussions in the antenatal care continuum. Women should strive to engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise each week, and they should continue this as soon as they can in the postpartum period.
Experts agree these pregnancy exercises are the safest:
- Walking—Brisk walking gives a total body workout and is easy on the joints and muscles.
- Swimming and water workouts—Water workouts use many of the body’s muscles. The water supports your weight, so you avoid injury and muscle strain.
- Stationary bicycling: Because your growing belly can affect your balance and make you more prone to falls, riding a standard bicycle during pregnancy can be risky. Cycling on a stationary bike is a better choice.
- Modified yoga and modified Pilates—Yoga reduces stress, improves flexibility, and encourages stretching and focused breathing. There are prenatal yoga and Pilates classes designed for pregnant women. These classes often teach modified poses that accommodate a pregnant woman’s shifting balance. You should avoid poses that require you to be still or lie on your back for long periods.
Suppose your patient is an experienced runner, jogger, or racquet sports player. In that case, she may be able to keep doing these activities during pregnancy, provided that as the healthcare provider in charge, you need to monitor and guide her all the way.
While pregnant, avoid activities that put your client at increased risk of injury, such as the following:
- Contact sports and sports that put you at risk of getting hit in the abdomen, including ice hockey, boxing, soccer, and basketball.
- Skydiving
- Activities that may result in a fall include downhill snow skiing, water skiing, surfing, off-road cycling, gymnastics, and horseback riding.
- “Hot yoga” or “hot Pilates” may cause you to become overheated.
- Scuba diving
- Activities performed above 6,000 feet (if you do not already live at a high altitude)
Tips for Midwives
At every antenatal appointment, midwives must try to bring up physical exercise. Even a one- or five-minute talk about an activity might be used as brief counsel. These pictures are useful because it is understood that midwives have a lot to cover during a clinical prenatal visit.
It’s essential to convey to women that physical activity is doable and to dispel any notions that doing so requires them to join a gym or purchase pricey equipment. Get the word out to women that staying active during pregnancy can help both mom and baby have the best possible health results after giving birth.
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