Exercise/sport in pregnancy - when to stop?

[Honeybee79]

I'm 35 + 2. I did a decent amount of exercise before I was pregnant (dance, a bit of swimming) and have basically carried on to date at the same level and frequency. I do about 4 hours of dance and an hour of swimming a week, plus the usual walking etc. My midwife said this was fine.

I feel OK and would like to carry on with the dancing a bit longer if I can - maybe to 38 weeks?

If you carried on with sport/exercise throughout your pregnancy then when did you decide (or when do you plan to decide if currently pg) to call it a day in advance of birth?

Is it irresponsible to carry on until about 38 weeks if I feel OK and modify moves if necessary?

Interested to hear others' plans/experiences of this, tho obv wI'll dissues with mw when I see her again next week. TIA .

My midwife's advice was that unless I was in pain/uncomfortable then keep on exercising.

As long as you don't overdo and listen to your body I don't understand why you think you need to stop?

I guess it just feels riskier the closer I get to my due date! But maybe that's less to do with the exercise itself and more to do with my fear of my waters breaking/going into labour in public tbh.

I'm really into running and like going to the gym. I think it would drive me crazy if I had to give this up and aim to carry on for as long as I can. I guess as long as you FEEL ok doing it then I am sure you are. If you were reasonably fit pre pregnancy, which by the sounds of it you were, then you should be totally fine. Its the people who suddenly take up a new intense exercise regime during pregnancy that need to be careful as far as I have heard. Infact, a friend of mine who is a personal trainer explained to me that when you are out of breath you are taking oxygen away from the baby, and that this is a good thing as you teach the baby to be resiliant and not get stressed when this happens during labour, and therefore gives you a calmer more efficient labour (or puts more odds in your favour anyhow!) Not long for you now! Goodluck!!

I went to zumba and yoga until 39 weeks my last class was 4days before ds2 was born obviously I modified I couldn't not It was great such a sense of achievement. I had a 4 day on off slow labour before a CS because my baby was back to back and couldn't move but I coped so well and was out and about in days back at yoga 3 hours after my 6 week and done a 40 min round trip school run twice a day from 1.5 weeks fine. I can honestly say without staying so fit I would have been exhausted then bed ridden for weeks I know because after ds1 that's exactly what happened took me months to recover without the CS.

Keep at it as long as you feel able it will do you good.

I had my last personal training session at 39+4 four days before I delivered. I wasn't doing as much running then but otherwise still doing everything I'd done before. No need to stop if you feel fine - the fitter the better for labour and recovery.

Thanks.
Kiki I had a similar experience with DS - back to back labour followed by CS. Great to hear that you recovered so well and that exercise and prior fitness were so key to this!

I think your body will tell you when to stop. If you've had a problem free pregnancy there's no reason not to keep going.

I was able to run to 30 weeks (at parkrun, surrounded by people, not alone) and did antenatal Pilates up to 38.

My friend is a personal trainer. She ran and participated in her gym classes till the day she gave birth. She was then back at it a week later!