is it safe to hula hoop during early pregnancy?

[Gubbins2010]

Hi,
I'm about 7 weeks pregnant and I'm keen to stay in shape during pregnancy. I'm cycling and swimming but my tummy is not as toned as it usually is and I'm concerned that this will make my pregnancy/labour more difficult.
I usually hula hoop to get toned for holidays and wondered if it was safe to do this during pregnancy?
There's an amazing woman on youtube who hula hoops whilst pregnant (she's a lot better than me!) and she looks as though shes some kind of professional hula hoop/dancer so her body is completely used to it. I hula hooped for about 20 mins a night to get my tummy toned for a holiday about 8 weeks ago do you think its safe to pick it up again?
thanks in advance for your advice

[LouLou030783]

I think it's prob save to do it however it seems ur focusing far too much on a tight toned stomach ur pregnant..ur body is going to change especially ur stomach and u can't change that so if ur only wanting to do it to keep ur stomach toned (which is how it appears on ur post) I'd catch a grip and realise that's not gonna happen

[LouLou030783]

Also ur stomach muscles being tighter can make labour harder everytime I pushed my ds my stomach muscles contracted and pulled him back up

[cathyandclaire]

I don't know about hooping but I did loads of crunches with my first pregnancy and my abs were so strong that I got very bad separation of the rectus muscles in later pregnancy which took lots of work to improve after birth!
A good excuse to sit with your feet up!!!

[Gubbins2010]

Thanks for the responses.

LouLou I'm not concerned about getting fat- but I can see why you thought that from my post!
I'm concerned about keeping fit so the baby is healthy and so my body is prepared for as natural as possible labour. Its my first baby and I'm pretty ignorant. I always assumed that it was particularly important to keep your stomach muscles toned to protect the bump. I guess the opposite seems to be the case?

[LouLou030783]

I'd say keep fit if u are
But don't concern urself too much with ur abdo as cathyandclaire said it caused her issues later on it pregnancy.

Just think about how much stretching of those muscles will occur and how quickly and u will know urself how it's not so important to worry about that area at the moment

[Gubbins2010]

just found this on the NHS website for any other clueless folk like me who are reading this! It advises on the exercises you should and shouldn't avoid. According to this strengthening your stomach muscles helps to avoid back pain later on. Ill definitely not be overdoing it on the abs tho after what you guys have said!
thanks again for the advice

www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/pregnancy-exercise.aspx#Exercises

[Quodlibet]

I'm sure hula hooping is fine!

You can have strong toned stomach muscles and not have issues in pregnancy and birth (I still had a 6 pack at 6 months if I flexed in the right light, and recovered a flat stomach after birth) as long as your abdominal strength isn't out of proportion/over developed. Just doing lots of crunches is a bad idea whether pregnant or not. You want a strong core, strong lower back, strong glutes, strong pelvic floor, and lots of flexibility. Something like Pilates is ideal. You do have to be careful about some kinds of abdominal exercise later in pregnancy to avoid diastasis recti (separation of stomach muscles) but learning good form (eg through Pilates) will help with that.