What mode of birth did you have? And were you very active in pregnancy?

[ZEWatson]

This is not an 'I'm better than you' post. Purely I'm interested to see if there's any correlation between level of fitness during pregnancy and the mode of delivery.

My question is what mode of delivery did you have?
Unplanned C section, planned C section, or vaginal (including forceps and instrumental).
AND
Were you very active into your 3rd trimester of pregnancy? I'm talking muscle building activities, high impact aerobic sport etc. Not regular walking or light exercise.
I've read there is a correlation between women who regularly do high intensity sport during pregnancy (weight lifting, sport climbing, fast running ) and how their body doesn't identify labour signs and changes of hormones due to the body being so adjusted to dealing with high stress activities and therefore higher levels of unplanned Csection.

I'll start- I carried on my usual sports during pregnancy of running 3x a week up until 41 weeks, climbing until 30 weeks and swimming until 42 weeks and I never went into labour, despite induction and had an unplanned C-section at 42+2.

I’m pretty active, not a gym person more of a walker, cyclist, out and about person. I was hill walking at 4 months pregnant and valley walking 6 months.

I felt well right up until 2 weeks before the birth. Our DC arrived months prematurely because of pre eclampsia. I had the most medicated of births, a general anaesthetic Caesarian. Despite being a fit person, I was never going to be permitted to have a home birth or allowed near the birthing pool at the hospital. This was because I was a 43 year old first time mum to be. Nevertheless, to say the birth I got was far from my expectations is an understatement. Psychologically, I still find it hard to describe the experience as ‘giving birth’, I had an operation, a surgical procedure for which I was unconscious. The memory of the moment before birth was me beginning to have a fit on the operating table.

Happily we both came through this well and the boy is a star. The tinniest child in school now a 6ft teen.

Very long labour, emergency C section. I was competing in bodybuilding before that.
The same story for my fitness pro friend.

First pregnancy - emergency section after induction at 41+5 - only lightly active

Second pregnancy - planned section due to pre-eclampsia at 34+5 - was in hospital for 4 weeks prior to birth - so only exercise was going to the loo and back.

I was a shepherd so very fit and active, doctors said i had blood pressure and heart rate of an athlete.

Body made zero attempt to give birth and I ended up going way overdue and getting a CS as found out at the last minute baby was a bum-first breech.

I would say everyone's different and you just never know what might happen, BUT it's best to be as fit & healthy as you possibly can through your pregnancy.

My eldest is 16 and I definitely didn't do much when I was expecting first time round in fact I was quite 'precious' which makes me cringe when I think of it! I put my feet up a lot, rested and nested etc. Baby was OP and I had the most horrific labour that went on for over 70 hours, I didn't dilate more than 4cm (2 failed epidurals) and ended up having a c-section.

2 years later when I was pregnant again I was of course a lot more active due to running around after a toddler all the time. I also really wanted a VBAC so I made sure to be as fit and active as possible. Second labour was completely different, VBAC was fine just gas & air and baby was 9lbs! I recovered so much quicker afterwards too.

Obviously you just don't know how things are going to play out but I do think it's wise to give yourself (and baby) the best chance by staying as fit and active as you can.

I had a relatively easy unmedicated vaginal birth at 41 + 3. I wasn't desperately active, no weight lifting, only cross trainer and exercise bike at the gym, 2/3 mile walks and renovating a house which did result in me doing endless painting and some light lifting.

My pregnancy with my son occurred during lockdown so I couldn't carry on at the gym as planned. All we could do was walk and YouTube exercise videos. He was born at 40+5 with a totally chilled out and straightforward vaginal birth. I had an episiotomy and 3b tear due to him coming out at a weird angle but there was nothing I could have done to change that.

This time around I'm much more active and do a high intensity Zumba class for an hour every week plus carting a heavy three year old around. I'm only 31 weeks at the moment so no idea how being more active this time will affect birth (if at all). I'll report back if I remember.

i've had 3 vaginal births with no interventions and not done any sport at all

Slow mode (pregnancy)

Fast mode (labour)

Active pregnancy, former athlete.
baby never came anywhere near being engaged. He was also back to back and oblique which all happened at 40ishweeks,had been in a great position before then. (Un) planned c-section @ 41 weeks.Great easy recovery.
c-section unplanned but booked day before so not emergency either.. not sure what you’d call it.

Active pregnancy but not intense activity, cycling to work initially, then changed to walking 1 hour each way up until 39 weeks, regular swimming and walking outside of this. Occasional exercise bike and dance at home

Water broke at 39+3 but I never got any contractions, induction with the drip ended in vaginal birth with minor tears/grazes all internal, great recovery

Three vaginal births, I'd describe my activity levels as light to medium.

Really interesting!
So similar for a lot of weight lifting people I hear! I don't lift weights often but I do climb and I am a lot physically stronger than the average woman in terms of muscle mass.

Very interesting. Would call that a semi-elective c-section probably. In that it was planned, not emergency, but not the ideal outcome

I did some light walking in pregnancy and I wasn’t hugely active. I had a straightforward vaginal birth with no interventions.

Very active for my first living baby. Extremely active jobs (I had more than one at the time) 14+ hour days, 35,000-40,000 steps a day, lots of bending and lifting, very few days off. Swimming to a relatively high level. Long distance hiker. Hid the baby very well, extremely difficult to tell I was pregnant at all until 8+ months. Natural birth with no intervention needed, no medication and no stitches.

completely different with further children when I was crippled with PGP and winced and fainted my way to 6-8k steps a day, no exercise, on crutches, never comfortable sitting or lying down, just wishing the days away until birth. Two more natural vaginal births with no assistance or medications. Unfortunately the births were not magic spells to fix the pelvis and although I’m closer to the first activity levels than the second, now, it’s taken several years to get there.

Very active for my whole pregnancy. Rode my horse up to 8 months pregnant and did all yard duties ie mucking out etc. swam 3 times a week and walked my dog every day. Had very quick unplanned home delivery. contractions probably lasted around 3 hours. No medical intervention and back on board after 3 weeks.

Moderately active in first pregnancy with pilates and swimming, sedentary job. Induction for post dates, ventouse, epidural.
Lightly active in second with same activities less often plus toddler plus PGP. Lovely spontaneous vaginal water birth. Much longer to get back to prior fitness levels afterwards.

Seems like there's some truth in your theory OP from the comments from very active folk here. Have you searched for any actual evidence from the medical literature eg via Google scholar?

First pg I had a vaginal birth with no interventions, easy pg and birth. No exercise but moderately active daily due to job.

Second and third pgs were elcs. Similar activity levels to first. Easy recoveries and pregnancies.

Two non-instrumental vaginal births, no exercise during pregnancy other than gentle walking. TBH I was barely able to stand by the end of my second pregnancy due to SPD and general pregnancy discomfort.

2 natural births and one emergency (category A) c section. Slim and reasonably active but definitely no cardio or deliberate fitness

Vaginal, age 41.5.
No particular exercise but I was still mucking out horse on the morning of. So active and lifting fairly heavy things like hay bales and wheelbarrows.

I was to be induced due to risk factors but actually had spontaneous short labour (6.5hrs) after induction failed (long story).

Had two births many moons ago , so first was quite fit as I was early twenties and they came quite fast and to be honest I was young and lively so it was all straight forward . Second in late twenties so , much the same , young and lively .
So both vaginal births and very quick .

Quite sedentary if I’m being v honest. No more than a 20 minute walk daily with the dog at best. WFH, don’t move enough.

Induced at 42 weeks, vaginal. No instruments.

mid 30s

Moderately active ( walking ,yoga, swimming) straight forward VB. Less structured exercise 2nd tine round but cycled to work and running round after toddler v. quick easy VB.