Exercise during pregnancy: benefits and recommendations

It is well known that maintaining a healthy lifestyle is important, and even more so if you are pregnant. That is why, as well as watching your diet during pregnancy, you should also do exercise. For this reason, the midwives at Happymami have prepared the following post for you: exercise and pregnancy update.

With the latest update on exercise and pregnancy, the first thing you should know is that, in general, you should avoid rough or potentially dangerous sports. Going for walks or swimming is more advisable.

Benefits of physical exercise during pregnancy for the mother

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends physical exercise during pregnancy. It is striking, however, how many women are unaware of the basic information about the relationship between exercise and pregnancy.

Studies have shown the importance of doing physical exercise during pregnancy, which has numerous benefits. It prevents pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes, as well as excessive maternal weight gain. It improves how pregnancy progresses and helps stabilise maternal mood. It also reduces the risk of varicose veins and venous thrombosis, as well as lowering levels of breathlessness and episodes of lower back pain.

Benefits for your baby of physical exercise during pregnancy

Just as it is for you, physical exercise during pregnancy is very beneficial for your baby. In general, it is known that the baby tolerates maternal exercise well. What is more, it has been shown that pregnant women who exercise just three times a week at moderate intensity have larger babies than sedentary women (3,682 versus 3,364 kg), which may be due to a greater placental volume that improves the baby's blood flow and nutrition.

These babies show better psychomotor development, with better nerve maturation. Their mood profiles respond better to environmental and light stimuli. In addition, their risk of developing cardiovascular disease as adults is much lower.

Can I exercise if I am pregnant?

Despite the overwhelming scientific evidence available demonstrating the positive relationship between exercise and pregnancy, and the low health risks involved, many pregnant women do not follow even the minimum recommendations.

If you are healthy and your pregnancy is normal, you can carry on exercising or start doing physical activity regularly and safely. Physical activity does not increase the chances of miscarriage, low baby birth weight or premature birth.

Absolute contraindications for physical exercise during pregnancy

Although, as we have just seen, physical exercise during pregnancy is beneficial, there are situations in which it should not be done, such as the following medical conditions.

• Certain heart and lung problems
• Cervical insufficiency or cerclage
• Being pregnant with twins, triplets (or more babies) with risk factors for premature birth
• Placenta praevia after 26 weeks of pregnancy
• Premature birth during this pregnancy or rupture of the membranes
• Pre-eclampsia or pregnancy-induced high blood pressure
• Severe anaemia

Relative contraindications for physical exercise during pregnancy

If you have any of the following characteristics or situations, it should be your referring healthcare professional who decides what type and duration of physical exercise you can do.

• Anaemia
• Intrauterine growth restriction
• Heavy smoker (more than 20 cigarettes a day)
• Orthopaedic limitations
• Poorly controlled hypertension
• Extremely sedentary lifestyle
• Ungraded maternal cardiac arrhythmia
• Chronic bronchitis
• Thyroid dysfunction
• Morbid obesity (Body Mass Index above 40)
• Poorly controlled Diabetes Mellitus
• Malnutrition or eating disorders

Warning signs that mean you should stop exercising

If you notice these signs or symptoms, you should stop exercising and consult your midwife or gynaecologist.

• Vaginal bleeding
• Feeling dizzy or faint
• Difficulty breathing before exercising
• Chest pain
• Headache
• Muscle weakness
• Pain or swelling in the calves
• Regular, painful contractions in the uterus
• Loss of fluid from the vagina

What type of exercise should I do and for how long during pregnancy?

Clinical guidelines recommend that pregnant women do 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity every week. And what is moderate-intensity activity? It is activity that works the large muscles of the body (such as those in the legs and arms) rhythmically, raises your heart rate (the rhythm of your heart) and makes you start to sweat.

An example would be walking briskly and doing general gardening (raking leaves, weeding or digging). You can split the 150 minutes into 30-minute sessions on 5 days a week, or into shorter 10-minute periods during the day. For example, you can go out for a walk three times a day for 10 minutes.

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Exercise you should avoid if you are pregnant

Just as there is strong scientific evidence recommending physical exercise during pregnancy, there is also a consensus, backed by strong scientific evidence, that calls for ruling out all sports or exercises that involve a risk of impact or pressure-decompression on the abdomen and foetus, and that could cause trauma to your baby. For example, football, basketball, volleyball, skiing, cycling, tennis, horse riding, paragliding, climbing, judo, skating, fencing, scuba diving, etc.

In the same way, you should avoid sports or strenuous activities that are sudden and/or highly glycolytic (generally a heart rate above 140 beats per minute), as they have a negative effect on the oxygen supply to your baby. Examples include competitive sport, athletics, bodybuilding, etc. Or exercises and sports with sudden changes of direction, or in which the pelvis is subjected to excessive activity that could harm your future baby (running, hurdles and jumps in athletics, cycling, horse riding, etc.).

Recommended exercises during pregnancy

One alternative for safe exercise during pregnancy is water-based exercise. It carries a low risk of injury and allows you to combine aerobic activity with muscle-strengthening work. With this type of exercise, the risk of injury falls significantly, as reported in their review.

What is more, there are numerous benefits to be gained from water-based activity during pregnancy, and they are based mainly on the characteristics that immersion in water provides. These include:

• Reducing weight (thanks to buoyancy).
• Avoiding impact (when jumping and falling).
• Freeing up the body's movements.
• Becoming aware of your breathing and working on its phases.
• Aiding venous return through the pressure and flow of the water.
• Allowing better heat dissipation (at the right temperature).

There are also physiological benefits of water as a therapy for lower back pain during pregnancy: analgesic, sedative, anti-inflammatory and muscle-relaxing effects, reduced joint stiffness, etc. The buoyancy and weightlessness that water provides also encourage freedom of movement, so you can adopt postures that would be uncomfortable or impossible on dry land.

Water pressure reduces the risk of injury to both mother and baby from trauma or sudden movements, as it prevents you from going beyond your limits. It also has a relaxing effect, both psychologically and physically, allows the spine and joints to stretch, easing the extra weight that pregnancy brings, and some women say that swimming also helps them ease pregnancy nausea, boost their energy levels and sleep better.

Conclusion: exercise and pregnancy update

Every mum is different and, as always, you should adapt the recommendations to your own case and particular circumstances, knowing that physical exercise during pregnancy is recommended and that water is considered the ideal environment for pregnant women to move in. What is more, you can make the most of these new lifestyle habits that you take up during pregnancy and carry on with them afterwards.

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