did excersizing in pregnancy affect your labour?

[pippa251]

Just wondering as I kept fit (swimming / gym 5 times a week) and had a really short one and my Personal trainer had the same.

Cheers

Hmmm. I'd like to think I also kept fit, did yoga every day and went to a class once a week, swam three or four times a week right up until the week I was due, walked the 45 minutes to work until I went off on leave, and went for a reasonable walk every day until it was just too exhausting (I was 9 days overdue when labour started). I was also running about three times a week until I found out I was pg, and had a pretty strong astanga yoga practice (about 3-4 times a week) until then as well. Everyone told me labour would whizz by.

Eighty hours. Yes. Contractions started Sunday lunchtime and dd was born Wednesday just before midnight.

But it was a natural delivery at the end of that, and no pain relief beyond gas and air (and that only for the last 4 hours or so), so I think that the fitness probably helped with my stamina and pain management. I'd try to stay fit again a second time.

Just remembered, also, that I know a superfit mum who is also a personal trainer and runs running clubs, fitness for mums classes etc. who has two kids and said both her labours were 30 hours. So not sure fitness can be relied on to shorten labour.

I spent my first pregnancy horizontal due to low blood pressure. The only exercise I had all pregnancy was vomiting.

Had a fairly short labour. Went to hospital at about 11 am and had DS at 5.40 pm.

Did a little more whilst pregnant with DS but not much. 1st contraction 11 pm born at 2.45 am.

I am not sure there is any correlation (although would be surprised if some doctor/sports scientist hasn't done a study somewhere. I was also a 5 times a week exerciser and was in the gym on my due date. My labour was not easy and I had a high forceps delivery. I do think being fit helped with the recovery and (fairly obviously) getting my figure back. Also being in the mindset meant that even when I was tired etc with a new baby, I still had a exercise routine which made me feel much better.

Paula Radcliffe had a very difficult labour! There has been some anecdotal evidence that particularly fit mothers with strong core muscles actually have slightly harder labours because 'releasing' the baby and engaging is harder for thier body to do.

A positive that HAS been researched is that female athledes/professional sports women who have had a birth without pain relief (P Radcliffe amongst many others) have gone on to set improved personal bests afterwards, because their pain thresholds have been 'reset' and they aware of how hard they can push themselves physically and psychologically.

Thanks for the replies- I'm trying to figure out why mine was so short- as I'm a little worried about next time (although that will be some time off). I'm glad excersizing has not much to do with it as I was very thankful I worked out in pregnancy- helped getting my figure back!

Not sure it relates to length and ease of labour. I did bugger all excercise and had a 6 hour labour on gas and air and no intervention. On the other hand I have friends who went religiously to aquanatal and pregnancy yoga every week and had horrendous births with every intervention possible. I guess exercise would help with stamina etc if you had a long labour......?

I was as fit as a flea with my first labour and it lasted 36 hours ending in a section! Oh dear. On the plus side, I did get my body back fairly quickly afterwards.

DD2 and DS were cake and crisp pregnancies, with elective sections at the end, so I can't compare them, but it did take a long time to get any sort of figure back.

I'm pretty sure from anecdotal evidence that exercising while pregnant has no effect at all on how long or difficult your labour is. I know some physically fit women who've had easy births and claim their fitness is the reason, and just as many who've had terrible labours. And, as someone else has already pointed out, Paula Radcliffe apparently had a really bad long labour.

Maybe the reason for lack of correlation is that the only muscle you really need during birth is your uterine one, and all the gym visits in the world won't exercise that. The only way to get that fit is to give birth, which is why second labours are usually quicker.

As for getting my figure back, I did take the baby out for a walk each day (it was the only way he would sleep).

Apart from that I found bfing to be fab. Lip-o-suction

I was back in my old jeans in a shortish time but I've never really been to a gym or ever been on a diet.

I think if you eat a reasonabily healthy diet, bf and are moderately active your figures comes back without stressing.

well i better put off a second child until i can afford a super car to get me to hospital in time then - lol

I was very fit before ds I did about 40-50 hours of heavy exercise a week. When I got pg everyone told me off so I stopped and became very ill gp said it was because I stopped exercising. Labor was 24 hours but no complications.

On dd I continued exercising and ended up with a much healthier pg but my labor was much the same only in labor for 10 hours.

Mw did tell me something she said she doesn't know why but all women who are rhesus negative have long labors she said it is her guess that rhesus negative women have a harder job releasing oxytocin. Don't know if she is right but it is interesting.

Perhaps I should run a poll to find out if there is any correlation she did say though that rhesus positive women can still have long labors it is just less common apparently.

I was fit and I power walked during 1st labour to cope with the contractions and yes the getting to the pushing out stage was brief but then the next part was bloody difficult. I also had a very toned flat stomach and didn't show until about 26 weeks but found when ligaments started to loosen and the bump started to really grow that it did hurt.

I was fit but ended up lying in one position because dd's heart rate was being monitored and I wasn't even able to turn on my side or it would drop, let alone bounce on a yoga ball!
The only calories I burned were from the vomiting and then I had a section in the end so I didn't even get to 'bounce' back afterwards.
But dd is nearly four now and this is when the fittness really helps. Lots of running around after her and cleaning up.
Everyone is different.

I walked at a good pace at least 2 hours every day of my pregnancy and anly put on 8 kg. My labour was 17 hours long but managed to be upright and walking around for the first 13 with no problem at all, which I put down to basic fitness. Had no pain relief at all and one week on I feel fab and am back in pre-preg clothes.

Hi pippa, I replied on your other thread too.

My answer to this question is not unless you consider vomiting and whingeing exercise! I had hyperemesis all through first pregnancy and did no exercise at all. Labour was 4 hours, no pain relief.

Second time round I had hyeremesis for 6 weeks but after that was fine but apart from keeping up with a 2 year did no exercise. Second labour under 2 hours.

I'm a PE & dance teacher, so did quite a lot of exercise during all three pgs. I don't honestly think it has a great influence on the actual labour, and many dancers I know ended up with CS because their abs were apparently "too tight" (??) Out of about 20 dance teachers I know, I'm the only one who had VB.
Anyway, that said, the thing I do believe is that being fit beforehand, and maintaining some of your pre-pregnancy level of fitness through the pg, means that you recover more quickly, both from the birth and regaining a decent level of fitness in the couple of months following your baby being born. But that's just IMHO!

I was also told this by every midwife I saw before I had dd. I'm quite tall and used to go the the gym 5 times a week, out running, very very fit and throughout my pregnancy. Every midwife told me tall, slim and fit women labour well so I was like a woman possessed, I had to exercise every day to get me through labour. Didn't work at all for me, into hospital at 4cm on tue, had dd on the fri.

I don't get chance to go the gym now as I'm on my own, what with working, running around after dd (almost 3) we walk everywhere when not at work so still quite fit, now 35 weeks am hoping this time the baby will just slide out (have no pelvic floor yet never have accidents when running oops sorry TMI )

Slushy - afraid I have to throw a spanner in your midwife's theory - am rhesus negative and had a 10hr labour with dc1 (though should really have been 8 but midwifes were changing shift and didn't notice I was fully dialated, while I never had an urge to push so the baby sort of sat there is distress for a bit...), then a 3 hr labour with dc2. Sorry!

I was 19 and did bugger all exercise and had a pretty straightforward 13 hour labour. The only complication was DS inhaling meconium and being whisked off to special care straight after being born.

I'm rhesus negative too!

i exercised everyday when preg with Ds, and didnt show until very late, after being baned from the gym after a bleed at 24 weeks, thought had a 3.5 hour labour start to finish, no tear. oh and im O-, so that is you midwives theory out of the window, mum is O+ and went 44 hours with me.

i ran pre-pg (basic fitness nothing hardcore) but didn't exercise at all during pg due to m/c history and then bleed at 28 weeks. Had v good labour, 24 hrs but slept through first 8 hours or so, didn't go to hospital till 8cms, only had proper pain for 4-5 hours, managed with just g&a.

think it is just luck tbh

I think it's luck (I'm rh- btw):

Birth 1: Did antenatal yoga; swam; took long walks daily, including the day my waters broke. Labour: 11 hours, epidural, ventouse, nasty tear.

Birth 2: Already unfit, lazy about yoga; I broke a leg at 7 months PG and spent the last 8 weeks of PG motionless. Labour: 5 hours start to finish, no pain relief needed, nastier tear.

Recovery is a different matter - I'm still not 'right' 2 years on from 2nd birth because of that forced immobility.