Excercise During Pregnancy

Exercising during pregnancy is a wonderful way to promote a healthy labor. Although many factors contribute to labor and each woman's experience is different, only good things can come from exercising.

• Start slowly, with short brisk walks around the block. Walking for fifteen minutes every day is a great way to get your blood flowing and to keep your hip and pelvic bones flexible.

• Do some basic prenatal yoga exercises. Here is one that really helped me and below is a link with more information.
  

1. Start by clasping your hands behind your back. Then, keeping your legs straight, very slowly bend from the waist. Bend as far as you can and when the backs of your legs begin to feel a slight burn DON'T TENSE UP. Instead, relax your leg muscles and breath in and out slowly until the burning lessens. Then, if you feel comfortable, bend just a little bit farther, breath, and relax your leg muscles again.
   

After I gave birth, I realized that the sensation I felt in my legs while doing this exercise was very similar (on a lesser scale) to what I felt during the contractions of my labor. By practicing relaxing into the pain on a daily basis, I trained my body to do this and virtually responded automatically in the same way during contractions.

http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/health_safety/active_birth.shtml
This link the site for a book called Active Birth by Janet Balaskas. In addition to many more wonderful yoga exercises, there is a wealth of information about the benefits of exercise before and DURING labor.

• Swimming. It offers a prime work out for your body and also helps relieve some of the pressure you walk around with all day.
  

http://babyfit.sparkpeople.com/articles.asp?id=8
This link is an article that further discusses the benefits of water exercises and details some really great moves. Check your local listings for a class in your area.

• The figure 8. Stand with your legs about a foot apart and place your hands under your belly. Close your eyes and slowly rotate your hips in the form of a figure 8. First in one direction and then the other. This is also a great exercise to do during labor as it helps to gently lower the babies head.
• Kegels. Try to do about 25 of these a day. They help to strengthen the pelvic floor.
  

http://www.thelaboroflove.com/articles/kegel-exercise-for-a-healthy-pregnancy/

All of the information in this article is based on personal experience. I have no medical certification and all activities should be discussed with your doctor to make sure they are safe for your specific situation.