Not very fit - will my body be able to cope with the birth?

[asparagusaddict]

This is my first and I'm terrified about this.

I've always been slim and a normal weight for my height but have a very sedentary job and would consider myself unfit. I never really excercised until we decided to try for a baby - I started walking about 20 mins daily but we got pregnant literally the first month we tried so I didn't get much excercise done as the sickness and exhaustion soon started.

So I've had 5 months of sickness, then general fatigue and rather too much weight gain and I can't even walk up the stairs in my house without feeling exhausted and my heart pounding hard in my chest. I did try to go for a 15 minute walk once during the second trimester when I started feeling a bit better but my heart felt like it was going to burst and I felt light headed and sick. My blood pressure always seems to be within the normal range whenever I see my midwife.

I keep hearing people say labour is like running a marathon and this terrifies me as there is no way I could ever have run a marathon even before pregnancy but now, it feels like something like that would kill me practically straight away.

Is it possible for an unfit body to give birth? I'm petrified that my heart won't be able to take it.

Does anyone have similar fears or have any advice or reassurance?

You'll be fine. Labour is an endurance task - but you dont need to be marathon fit to do it and you dont have to have an "active" labour if you dont want one. You can lie down, sit on a birth ball and rock from side to side in early labour. Just try to do some exercise - e.g. short walks or swims (feeling weight free in the pool is lovely) or antenatal yoga - for you, not for the birth and try not to worry.

Don't worry,
I am hardly the picture of fitness as I do no structured exercise at all,

my first labour was 12 hours (where four hours was second stage labour i.e. pushing) and although tiring I coped fine,

Labour is not constant I had time to get my breath back between contractions

also your adrenaline kicks in and keeps you going.

your fitness will be the least of your worries, as you will be concentrating too hard on your pain management

I was defo not fit for a marathon, although I have to say I heard it discribed as running a marathon without and training so that was defo me.

As others have said keep active during labour, don't panic and keep relaxed and go with the flow. Worked for me.

Abigail Witchalls was stabbed in the back of the neck and paralysed when 3 months pregnant. She had an uncomplicated, natural delivery. Birth is involuntary, and frankly I get fed up with the "you must be fit" mantra. It may help, I wouldn't know, but I had dreadful SPD/PGP that meant I needed to use a wheelchair when shopping for baby stuff. Couldn't swim as you can injure yourself without knowing, while the water supports you, and couldn't walk much because it hurt. A lot. I felt asthmatic, I was so puffy. I got very fat and very flabby, but had a labour that was completely uncomplicated and not even horribly painful. My baby was very healthy and I never needed more than water, gas and air. Wasn't even that tired (stoned, but not tired). I was scared stiff that my terrible pregnancy would mean I wasn't able to cope with birth, but actually the birth hurt a lot less and was a lot less effort than I expected. It was easier than many other things I've done in life. Far easier in terms of energy and effort than running, certainly. It was more like having your toe stubbed hard at increasingly regular intervals than anything else. (I'm not being facetious here. Having your toe stubbed, hard, HURTS.) Endurance, yes, but not in the same way as running.

If only fit people gave birth then there would be a lot fewer parents, as most people live sedentary lives nowadays. I had the same fears you do, and they were groundless. I have far fitter friends who breezed through pregnancy and then had a miserable time. Maybe my next birth will be a hard one, too? Who knows. Birth, I have come to conclude, is mostly luck. But if birth were genuinely a marathon - that horrible chesty feeling and the sensation that if you don't stop soon you will collapse - I'd not dream of having a second! As it is I'd happily have five, if we could afford it.

You will be fine, I was a giant blob last time and had a super easy birth. Lots of lazing about and just letting it happen.

just to ask if you've had your iron levels checked? i find it so hard going up the stairs, i have to sit down when i get to the top! Of course i am due any day now, but found out i was anaemic a few weeks ago. might be contributing to why you feel so out of breath.

I am pretty unfit, am a size 18 and found birth perfectly alright. Was in established labour for about 4 hours, baby came out in 4 pushes and I was home 6 hours after the birth. I was up and about the next day taking baby for a walk out in her pram.

It's just the luck of the draw imho.

Thanks everyone, your replies have lifted an enormous weight from my shoulders and I don't feel so afraid anymore!!!!!!

I've got my next midwife appointment tomorrow so will ask to check my iron levels, thanks for the tip BellasYummyMummy!

Asparagusaddict I would second bellasyummymummy in saying get your Hb/iron levels checked soon - all your current symptons sound more like aneamia than being unfit.

Having said that ive been slightly aneamic for weeks and cant seem to get my Hb levels up by much though at least enough to stop the worst of the palpitations and panting (Spatone very good and available from boots - might be worth taking anyway).

I was going to write a very similar post to yours not because im unfit(tho i am!) but because at 34 weeks im so still so exhausted and nauseus i stuggle to walk to the corner shop and have to be in bed by 7... the thought of going through labour in this state is terrifying

You'll be fine. I was massively overweight when I had mine! - each of them about 10 and a half pounds. And my heart didn't give up on me.

My pelvic floor, now that's another thing...

I do have heart problems diagnosed during pregnancy, struggled to walk during pregnancy and indeed spent most of the pregnancy in bed, but found giving birth alright. As others have said, it's essentially an involuntary process. Your body is programmed to do what it needs.

As I understand, the main heart-related risks during labour are pre-eclampsia/eclampsia (basically high blood pressure, for which midwives monitor very closely) and peripartum cardiomyopathy (usually unrelated to fitness).

But still, probably worth mentioning your symptoms to a GP. It's probably nothing to worry about, it might be anaemia, but there is still that 1-in-a-million chance it could be serious

Thanks ladies, had my iron checked and it is 13.9 which they said was fine.

On the other hand, I do seem to have all the symptoms of that peripartum cardiomyopathy so am booking a GP appointment right now.

I'm not fit either,but when your in labour,it isn't as though you can just give up half way through-I wish,LOL! Your body just keeps going.Hopefully you have some family/friends around who can let you sleep loads after you get home.