exercise during pregnancy - does it make childbirth easier or harder?

[mckenzie]

I have my own theory that if you exercise regularly during pregnancy (by regularly I would envisage about 4 times a week, swimming, aerobics, running, gym workouts etc) it can make labour/childbirth harder but makes the recovery easier.

I'd love to hear whether in your own experiences you would agree or disagree with this.

When I was pregnant with dd, I walked 2 1/2 miles to work every day and worked up to 10 hours a day. I worked right up til I was 8 months and still walked a lot til the birth. I had a very easy birth and I think the excersise helped a lot. Didn't need that much pain releif and it was all over in 4 hours! I also got my figure back very quickly. dd is 9 months now and I am smaller than I was pre pregnancy. Very unfit now though. Have bought excersise vid but it hasn't gone in the machine yet. Had it for about 6 weeks! Excersise definately helped for me.