Not long ago, Costa Rican supermodel Sarah Stage’s abdominal muscles during pregnancy were flashed in the circle of friends. According to media reports, the supermodel was not idle during her pregnancy and was doing fitness exercises until her lower abdomen slightly bulged near childbirth.
While netizens exclaimed [monster], many people also ridiculed her for caring only about her body and ignoring her children. Although she successfully gave birth to a healthy baby weighing 7 kg and 8 liang, it is still difficult for Chinese people who are used to being imprisoned by traditional ideas to accept pregnancy exercise.
Should I exercise during pregnancy?
Generally speaking, healthy pregnant women should still exercise moderately during pregnancy. Of course, some problems need to be explained in detail.
Which pregnant women are not suitable for exercise?
Many people have scruples about sports after pregnancy, not because they doubt the benefits of sports, but because they worry about some dangers caused by sports during pregnancy. Therefore, let’s first look at who is not suitable for sports after pregnancy.
According to a 2009 committee opinion of the American Academy of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG), absolute and relative contraindications of exercise during pregnancy are listed. For safety reasons, pregnant women should restrict exercise under the following circumstances:
1. Underlying diseases
- Heart disease, restrictive lung disease, hypertensive disorder complicating pregnancy, type 1 diabetes, uncontrolled epilepsy, uncontrolled hyperthyroidism
2. Poor physical condition
- Severe smoking, severe anemia, physical deformity and exercise restriction are too thin, i.e. Body mass index (BMI) < 12, for example, people who are 1.6 meters tall only have 30 kilograms.
3. Abnormalities during pregnancy
- Cervical insufficiency, multiple pregnancies, vaginal bleeding, placenta previa, previous premature delivery, history of premature rupture of membranes, history of fetal intrauterine growth restriction,
However, limited exercise ≠ bedridden.
Pregnancy is not illness, it is not that life cannot take care of itself after pregnancy. Even if you restrict exercise, you can still clean the table, wash the dishes and complete normal daily activities at home.
Exercise during pregnancy, safety first
There is also a situation in China, that is, you don’t exercise at all before pregnancy. After pregnancy, you understand the benefits of exercise to pregnancy before you start exercising.
This kind of situation also needs to be paid attention to. Even during non-pregnancy, a person needs to adapt to this change from not exercising at all to starting exercising. If he is pregnant, he should be especially careful.
In case of any of the following situations during pregnancy, the exercise should be suspended immediately and the patient should go to the hospital:
1. Any physical discomfort
- Dizziness, headache, dyspnea, chest pain, myasthenia, calf edema or pain
2. Abnormal pregnancy
- Premature fetal movement reduces vaginal bleeding due to premature rupture of membranes.
As for many people who worry that the first three months of sports will not cause abortion, the second three months of sports will not cause premature delivery, will cause slow growth and development of the fetus, will the baby’s birth weight be too low, and even the sports will not cause stillbirth and stillbirth… There is clear evidence that for healthy pregnant women, there is no need to worry about these!
Exercise during pregnancy has many benefits,
For many Chinese, they must stay in bed to protect their babies after pregnancy-this misconception must be corrected.
After understanding the safety of exercise, it is necessary to know the benefits of exercise during pregnancy.
STEP 1 Keep fit
Although there is still controversy over whether exercise during pregnancy can promote the growth of babies, just as exercise during non-pregnancy is conducive to physical fitness, exercise during pregnancy can also help pregnant women to enhance their physical strength and health.
Step 2: Improve constipation
Due to hormone effect during pregnancy and uterine enlargement hindering intestinal movement, about 1/3 of pregnant women will suffer from constipation in different degrees. Increasing dietary fiber intake and moderate exercise during pregnancy are ideal methods to treat and prevent constipation.
Step 3 Prevent thrombosis
Blood is in a hypercoagulable state during pregnancy. Long-term bed rest is easy to form deep venous thrombosis of lower limbs, and even pulmonary embolism endangers the life of pregnant women. Therefore, bed rest during pregnancy usually does not have a good effect on what, but increases the risk of pregnancy.
Moderate exercise is conducive to promoting blood circulation and reducing the risk of thrombosis.
Step 4: Control Diabetes Mellitus
For pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus, exercise during pregnancy is a recommended treatment.
Therefore, for healthy pregnant women, not only does not restrict exercise, but also moderate exercise is recommended.
Exercise suitable for pregnant women
Exercise during pregnancy refers to purposeful, specially take time to do sports, and do housework and other daily activities are different. Of course, if women are still engaged in heavy physical labor during pregnancy, then they can no longer deliberately go to exercise.
Modes of movement
Pregnant women actually have many choices, such as walking and taking stairs. A little more intense, you can swim, but you should pay attention to too many people in the swimming pool being hit, you can also jog, jump pedal exercises, etc. There are many kinds of pregnancy aerobics on the market. It doesn’t matter which one you choose, the important thing is that you should stick to it.
Exercise time
ACOG’s recommendation is not less than 30 minutes a day and seven days a week. If you really can’t stick to it, you should also stick to it for at least 20 minutes a day and at least 3-5 days a week.
Unsuitable Exercise for Pregnant Women
There are also some sports, For safety reasons, it is not recommended for pregnant women to choose. For example, antagonistic sports such as basketball and ice hockey are not suitable for pregnant women and are easy to get injured. Sports such as gymnastics, horse riding and skiing are also not suitable and are also easy to get injured. In addition, sports such as diving, although pregnant women are not easy to get injured, but will affect fetal pulmonary circulation and should also be avoided.
The above-mentioned sports seem to be a bit exaggerated. Pregnant women have to go to what to play basketball with a big belly. In fact, I want to emphasize a principle here, that is, safety during exercise, with the emphasis on the risks of falling and hitting the abdomen.
In addition, because it is easy to cause venous reflux obstruction when lying flat, the movement should reduce the posture of lying flat as much as possible. In addition, standing still for a long time will affect the cardiac output, and this posture should also be avoided as much as possible.
Finally, I would like to remind you that studies have shown that pregnant women who exercise more vigorously have an increased risk of catching a cold, which is also something expectant mothers who plan to exercise should pay attention to.
Now look at other people’s supermodel Sarah Stage. As a woman who has good exercise habits before pregnancy, she insists on exercising during pregnancy and finally gives birth to a healthy baby smoothly. This is really a normal thing that cannot be normal any more. It also sets a good example for other women.
We are not calling on all women to practice [abdominal muscles during pregnancy] like supermodels, but for every expectant mother, it is time to change the old concept of [pregnancy cannot move] and choose safe and scientific exercise methods during pregnancy.
Responsible Editor: Fu Ting