Pregnancy fitness is really important to condition your body to carry the extra pregnancy weight, avoid postural problems like pregnancy back pain and manage your pregnancy weight gain. After all, you only want to put on “good pregnancy fat”, i.e. the fat neccesary to support your pregnancy and not excess fat that will slow down your body and the development of your baby.

However, that said, not ALL exercise during pregnancy is good. In fact, if you don’t know what you are doing you can make some very risky mistakes.

So here are the 7 things you MUST be aware of before starting any pregnancy exercise programme:

1. Don’t Forget To Warm Up!

The warm-up is an essential part of any exercise programme but particularly in pregnancy. Your warm-up will increase your heart-rate and circulation sending essential oxygen to the muscles that you’re going to be working. It also signals your body that more strenuous activity is coming and prevents injury by releasing muscle tension.

Your warm-up should be enough to raise your heart rate a little and start to make you sweat, but gentle enough that you should be able to breathe easily.

2. Never Forget Your Water!

You know the scenario, you just arrived at the park or the gym and you unpack your bag only to find you’ve forgotten your bottle of water. But you’re all ready to go and you don’t have time to go get another one so you think you’ll make do with the water fountain – or worse you’ll grab some water on the way home…DON’T DO IT – EVER!

Your pregnant body is already more susceptible to overheating and dehydration as it is and exercising without water can be extremely dangerous for both you and your baby. Just 2% dehydration can seriously affect your body’s ability to function.

3. Avoid Exercising in Hot or Humid Conditions

Overheating in pregnancy is not good for you or your baby. Hot or humid conditions will reduce your ability to workout properly and make you feel dizzy, nauseous and faint. But there are more serious implications for your baby – especially in the first trimester. Temperatures of 39 degress celcius or more could cause problems for your growing baby and may lead to birth defects.

So to ensure your safety, avoid exercising outside during the hottest part of the day (10-3pm) and opt instead for an air-conditioned environment.

4. DON’T Do Traditional Abdominal Work!

Traditional abdominal exercises use the “six-pack” muscles that run vertically down your belly. These muscles insert into a midline called the linea alba. In pregnancy these muscles become extremley stretchy to allow your belly to grow with your baby, and become very prone to “abdominal splitting”.

This is where the muscles literally split apart down that midline and seperate. This can be rectified after birth but it takes a LOT of time and effort and it’s best to avoid the scenario in the first place.

Any traditional abdominal exercises, such as crunches, or oblique work will put enormous pressure on the already weakened muscle.

This is not to say that you shouldn’t be working your deep abdominals, but you need to refer to specific pregnancy core exercises rather than crunches.

5. Never Forget Your Back!

Your back is going to take a lot of stress as your body shape changes and your pregnancy grows. One area that women commonly neglect is the mid-back area. Training this area encourages good posture and will pull your shoulders back and lift your chest up and support the extra weight in your breasts.

Try exercises like rows, scapula squeezes and reverse flys to strengthen and tone in this area.

6. Don’t Overdo It

Exercise with caution and remember you should never exercise so hard that you struggle to catch your breath. At the peak of your workout you should feel that you are exercising “somewhat hard” and you should always be able to hold a conversation.

7. Avoid Jerky Movements

Now that you are pregnant your body is producing a lot of hormones which relax the ligaments in your joints, making them very unstable and much more suceptible to injury.

Games like Squash which require sudden changes in direction at high speed can esily result in a severely sprained ankle or twisted knee.

Not to mention that as you get heavier your centre of gravity will shift, affecting your balance and making falls more likely.

It is ALWAYS adviseable to seek professional help once you have found out that you are pregnant. Pregnancy fitness is a very specialised area and you want to be certain that you are getting the best care possible to ensure a healthy pregnancy for both you and your little one.

The first most priority of every new mother after the pregnancy period is over should be to take good post pregnancy care of her self. Therefore, for the first six to eight weeks, you should focus on taking complete rest, eating a balanced diet, and getting others to help you out with the newborn baby.

Rest

A child usually wakes up after every three hours and needs to be fed, changed, and comforted. This means that it would be a while till you get your uninterrupted eight hours’ sleep. Meanwhile, you will have to catch sleep whenever you can. It is best to sleep when your child is sleeping. Have your child near you during night so that you do not have any problem feeding him/her.

Nutrition

During pregnancy, your body will go through lots of changes. Therefore, your first priority should be to allow your body to heal. Taking a proper balanced and nutritious diet will help a lot in taking care after pregnancy. Your diet should consist of whole grain foods, fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, milk and milk products, lean meat, lentils, beans, and of course plenty of water. Avoid taking caffeine, alcohol, fatty foods, and sugars. Read a good book on nutrition after pregnancy to get an idea about what and how much to eat. You can even talk to your doctor about proper post pregnancy diet for you.

Helping Hands

A new baby is a lot of work and one can never be too prepared for the task ahead. So if it is possible have someone to help you around with household chores so that you and your partner can focus on the baby. You can depend on friends, family members, or paid caretaker providers for the task. With lesser pressure on you, your chances of fast recovery increase.

Taking care after pregnancy also means making all efforts to look good after pregnancy. So first of all you will have to lose all or almost all of your weight gain during pregnancy. This means your going on an exercising program. Do light exercises initially. As your body recovers you can take up strenuous exercises. Talk to your doctor or a fitness trainer about the best exercise regime for your body.

One can never actually completely prepare for motherhood, but reading books, checking out websites related to pregnancy, etc. will give an idea as to what to expect. This knowledge will help you in taking proper care after pregnancy of your body and also of your child- the most precious person for you.