Pregnancy and cycling, come and tell me your experiences

[hereagain99]

Hi ladies,

I am currently pregnant, 18 weeks, and still cycling to work and back everyday. I have done this for the last 10 years and the midwife has told me, as it is something usual for me, to keep going it. With my first pregnancy I was advised to stop cycling, which I did, so I don't have much experience of what happens towards the end of the pregnancy and if we are still able to cycle comfortable or at all. I have a few hills to go to work which I am managing fine at the moment, so I guess my query is just to know what other pregnant ladies have done and if you have had to modify or change anything in order to carry on cycling or you have had to stop all together.

I love cycling, it relaxes me and allows me to unwind from work before I collect DD from school. So please come and tell me how you are doing it or how you have done it

Thank you very much

37 weeks and still cycling 5 miles each way to and from work! Work from home a few days so it's not 5 times a week. Think it has stopped me from getting ill!

It isn't stopping me from being ill. I am just recovering from a bad cold but I guess that working with children is what it has

Does your belly bothers you when you are cycling? Which type of bike do you have? I have a folding bike and the position I use to ride seems to be good even if I end up with a big belly as I had with my last pregnancy

I have a hybrid and thought the bump would get in the way but actually it's still OK, my legs are open a bit when I cycle (glamorous! ) but it's not too bad. It's my first baby though and my bump is quite high which helps maybe?

I'm thinking preventing being ill bit because the alternative is the tube...!

I cycled in both my pregnancies daily until around 30 weeks. Both times the decision to stop was quite abrupt, I just got on my bike one day and thought "nope...!" and that was it.

What put me off was the risk to the fetus if somebody knocked me off. But I was cycling in London, through pretty heavy traffic, and it felt like it was only a matter of time.

I carried on with spin classes until six months. I found I just didn’t have the cardiac output to do any serious exercise after that - I was so slow it didn’t seem worth bothering. I stopped running when I found walkers were overtaking me . Carried on swimming for relaxation, but again I was only doing half my usual speed.

Yes, keep going if you're happy!

I cycled to work in my first pregnancy until about 7.5 months when the clocks changed (but it was a long commute- 9 hilly miles each way) and kept on my bike locally almost to term. I ride drops as well but just came up on the hoods (I'm tall and didn't have a massive bump, which helps).

I haven't been able to make it work with our nursery run so didn't cycle to work at all in my second pregnancy and felt a lot less fit for it.

As long as your balance doesn't feel off and you're not nervous (which I think can cause problems by being less assertive with road positioning etc) keep going. You'd be statistically at more risk driving somewhere .