During pregnancy and after the birth of your baby, exercising will help you manage the changes occurring to your body to improve your general health. Following these exercises below will also help reduce or prevent aches and pains during pregnancy.
Pelvic Floor Muscle Exercises/Kegels Exercises
Your pelvic floor muscles sit at the base of your pelvis. They help to keep your bladder, womb, vagina and bowel (pelvic organs) in the right place. Your pelvic floor muscles should be kept strong and active, just like any other muscle.
All bladder and bowel functions need good pelvic floor muscles. For example, when you need to go to the toilet, you use your pelvic floor muscles to prevent any leaks. Then, you will fully relax them to pass urine when you physically get to the toilet.
Strong pelvic floor muscles boost your core strength and stability. They can improve your sexual function too. Pelvic Floor Exercises are for life and can help to stop you from having bladder, bowel or prolapse symptoms in the future.
Pregnancy puts a lot of pressure on your pelvic floor muscles and it is normal for the pelvic floor muscles to stretch during a vaginal birth. Your muscles may be weaker and you may feel more pressure vaginally, so it is very important to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles soon after you have had your baby.
By doing your pelvic floor exercises you can avoid having symptoms such as leaking urine when laughing, coughing, sneezing and symptoms of vaginal heaviness.
For further advice on pelvic floor exercises please refer to:
POGP Pelvic Floor Exercises video
POGP Bladder and Vaginal Problems
POGP Constipation During and After Pregnancy
POGP When To Start and How To Do Perineal Massage
POGP After Birth Week One Bladder Care
NHS Highland Pelvic Floor Muscle Exercise Information Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v731EXFR2k4
Women’s pelvic floor muscles/NHS Inform
SqueezyApp for Information Leaflets and Videos on Pelvic Floor Muscle Exercises: https://www.squeezyapp.com
Exercise and physical activity during pregnancy
Being physically active in pregnancy has numerous clinically meaningful health benefits and is considered safe if you are healthy and your pregnancy is low risk. Unless you have been advised to avoid exercise during your pregnancy you can follow the advice below.
Guidelines recommend accumulating at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity every week and doing muscle strengthening activities twice per week. It’s good to try and be active in some way every day, every activity counts.
Moderate intensity physical activity is intense enough to noticeably increase heart rate; you should be able to talk but not sing during activities of this intensity. Examples include; climbing stairs, yoga, swimming, gym activities such as using the treadmill, carrying grocery shopping bags, cycling, dancing and going for a walk.
Being physically active in pregnancy:
- Helps reduce high blood pressure
- Improves sleep
- Helps to prevent gestational diabetes
- Improves mood
- Reduces risk of pre-eclampsia
- Reduces the risk of having a caesarean or instrumental birth
- Decreases the risk of urinary incontinence
- Reduces the risk of excessive gestational weight gain
- Improves blood sugar
- Reduces the risk of back and pelvic pain
If you are not normally active, the advice is to start gradually. If you are already active, the advice is to keep going. It is important to listen to your body and adapt appropriately.
There is no evidence to suggest that moderate intensity activity throughout pregnancy has any negative effect on either mother or their developing baby.
Safety Precautions
- Avoid physical activity in excessive heat
- Avoid activities which involved physical contact or danger of falling
- Avoid scuba diving
- Maintain adequate nutrition and hydration – drink water before/during and after
Reasons to Stop and Consult a Health Care Provider
- Persistent excess shortness of breath that does not resolve at rest
- Severe chest pain
- Regular and painful uterine contractions
- Vaginal bleeding
- Persistent loss of fluid from the vagina indicating rupture of the membranes
- Persistent dizziness or faintness that does not resolve on rest
If you are having a high risk pregnancy or are not keeping well please speak to you obstetric team before exercising.
For further advice or ideas on exercises please follow the links below;
Physical activity guidelines for pregnant women: Physical activity for pregnant women
Exercising after Pregnancy and in the Post Natal Period
After the birth of your baby you will need time to recover. It is important that you listen to your body. You can safely start exercises such as pelvic floor strengthening, pelvic tilting and gentle tummy muscle activation after a day or two. You can also start to gradually build up your walking. These exercises as well as some helpful advice for your postnatal recovery can be found in the following leaflet:
After 6 weeks, if you feel ready, you can return to low impact exercise such as Pilates and yoga. Here are some example of where to start.
POGP: Pilates in Woman’s Health Physiotherapy
You can return to swimming once any scars have healed and lochia has finished, this is usually around 8 weeks.
You may wish to start strength training. Strength training is recommended by the government physical activity guidelines for women after childbirth. You should try to be active every day, the government guidelines further recommend that you aim for 150 minutes of moderate activity every week.
We recommend not starting high impact exercises until after three months from the delivery of your baby to give your pelvic floor plenty of time to recover.