Exercising while pregnant: Benefits and safety precautions

CAIRO – 28 December 2017: Exercising while pregnant is an extremely contentious issue and a lot of people having very strong opinions on it. But what is the medical view on the issue, what are the benefits and what is safe exactly? We break down a few of the arguments here.

Physical exercise is important during pregnancy to help with the common discomforts experienced during the time, and to help prepare your body for labor and delivery. The site claims that in most cases, exercise is safe during pregnancy, although of course, each individual woman has to check with her personal physician before starting. If you were active before the pregnancy, it is generally safe to continue the same level of activity during pregnancy. It is important to exercise for fitness, and not weight loss, and it should never cause you pain or discomfort. According to the American Pregnancy Association (APA).


Pregnancy. Via CC/Pexels

The benefits of exercising during pregnancy, according to the APA, include:

• Reducing backaches, constipation and bloating
• Increasing your energy
• Improving your mood and posture
• Promoting strength and endurance to prepare for labor
• Improving quality of sleep
• Increasing your ability to get back into shape post-delivery

There are even more benefits, according to FitPregnancy, that include:

• Gaining less weight than if you did not exercise
• Lowering the risk of gestational diabetes by 27 percent
• Improving your body image, and improving your self-confidence
• Meeting other expectant mothers in prenatal classes

To ensure that you stay safe, some safety precautions that you might want to follow are:

• Avoiding exercises where you are likely to fall
• Avoiding exercises that include a lot of jumping or bouncing
• Avoiding any exercise that causes your exhaustion

Of course, always check with your doctor before performing any physical exercise.