Prenatal and Postnatal Exercises: Meaning and Benefits

arlier, people believed that pregnant women must avoid any sort of exercise to prevent harming the fetus. However, now doctors and midwives even suggest staying more physically active both during pregnancy and after giving birth. It helps mothers to avoid complications with pregnancies while giving them the required strength. 

Keep reading the article to know more about the benefits of prenatal and postnatal exercises and their meanings.

Pregnancy requires you to put in a lot of energy to cope with the intense stain while staying positive. Here maintaining a routine of light exercises throughout the pregnancy helps as you feel your best and keep going. These exercises performed during your pregnancy are called prenatal exercises.

By making it a habit, you can improve your posture, relieve yourself of the constant back pain and get rid of fatigue. Moreover, if you join exercise classes, you can also interact with other mothers with whom you can share your experiences and even detect if there’s something wrong. 

However, consult your doctor about how many exercises you can perform. Some great exercises which have always turned out to be safe are:

• Dancing
• Walking
• Swimming
• Stretching
• Breathing exercises
• Pregnancy yoga
• Indoor stationary bicycling

After giving birth, the body feels flushed and out of energy for quite a few days, but after you start feeling comfortable again, you must start with gentle exercises. After-birth or postnatal exercises help you improve your mental and physical well-being while restoring your normal self. 

If you had a C-section, complication or difficult birth, it might take time to be ready for exercises, but you can start with the easy ones. It helps you firm up your body, induce weight loss, improve your abdominal muscle condition, and maintain mood swings. Recommended postnatal exercises include:

• Swimming
• Brisk walking
• Yoga
• Aqua aerobics
• Cycling
• Light weight training
• Pilates
• Low-impact aerobic exercises

Following are certain important guidelines you must follow to make sure you are involved in a safe prenatal exercise program:

• Say no to exercises that result in too much sweating or make your heart beat faster
• It is unsafe to carry out jumping exercises during pregnancy as it may result in abdominal trauma, so avoid it altogether
• Do not carry sit-ups or balancing exercises
• While performing exercises, make sure you are not holding your breath
• Overstretching can cause injuries due to loose joints, so avoid it altogether
• Make sure to limit your aerobic exercises to 20 minutes
• Gradually as your due date reaches nearby, keep reducing the intensity of your workout and keep it limited to breathing during the last stage

Start postnatal exercises only after you fully recover, no matter how long it takes. Then start with light exercises, i.e., only after the doctor permits you. However, ensure you are mindful of the following pointers:

• Start with light walks
• Incorporate indoor activities which focus on core strengthening
• Do not try heavy lifting or overstretching
• Say no to activities that demand sudden movements and reflexes
• Avoid high-impact exercises like jumping and running
• After 3 months have passed, only then you can include yoga and pilates to your exercise program
• Swimming is recommended only after completing 3 months of delivery. At the time, you can also incorporate gentle training with bands but not weight

Here below are some of the major benefits of postnatal exercises along with prenatal ones, which add to its purpose and reasons as to why you should adopt them:

The following are the benefits of postnatal exercises:

• Lower Pregnancy-Related Risks

The most common type of complication women encounter during pregnancy is gestational diabetes. It is a condition that further increases the chances of Caesarean delivery and the risk of suffering through depression. However, it is seen that women who perform exercises daily are less likely to experience gestational diabetes and other related complications associated with it. 

• Quick Recovery After Birth

One of the benefits of postnatal exercises, making it important for mothers to perform after pregnancy, is quick recovery. When you start exercising, you work on your fitness level, thus strengthening your immune system. This, in turn, helps you recover faster. 

• Uplifts Mood and Reduces the Chance for Depression

There are mental health advantages of postnatal exercises, too, like they can help balance mood swings and keep you out of depression. You have to go through a lot both during and after pregnancy. For example, not getting enough sleep due to bladder compression or continuous crying of a baby, dealing with energy loss because of producing milk or growing a foetus inside. At this time, it is hard to maintain psychological balance, leading to women suffering from depression. 

• Improve Sleep 

It is common to experience sleepless nights or breakage of sleep due to uneasiness in pregnancy or because you cannot find the right position to sleep. However, by adopting regular exercise, you can improve your sleep while maintaining better mental health. 

On the other hand, the purpose of postnatal exercises is for mothers to be able to maintain a better mood, thus, creating a better role model image in front of their kids.

The following are the benefits of adopting Prenatal exercises:

• Better Weight Management

One of the biggest benefits of prenatal exercise is it staves off maternal obesity. It can be hard to lose stubborn pregnancy weight, so it is better to take measures from before. When you exercise during pregnancy, you save yourself from gaining a lot of weight. 

However, this does not mean you will not be gaining any weight, just that it will be comparatively lower than an inactive woman. Additionally, exercising regularly will help you burn fat and build muscle, thus improving weight management criteria. 

• High Energy Level

Another advantage of prenatal exercise is it helps keep up with the energy demand. Pregnancy can be tiresome, requiring you to maintain a healthy physical and mental level, which requires a lot of energy. 

By working out daily, you can boost your energy and maintain it throughout the day. Prenatal exercises strengthen your cardiovascular system and as a result you feel less tired while performing your day-to-day activities. 

• Healthy Baby

Last but not the least, exercising during and after pregnancy is also good for your baby. Mothers who indulge themselves in prenatal exercises from the beginning till the trimester experience a quicker trimester, and the baby gets better nourished. 

However, you must always consult a doctor or midwife before starting a pre or postnatal exercise program. They can guide you on whether you are ready for physical activity. Also, you can follow a few guidelines mentioned in the following sections. 

All in all, there are numerous benefits of prenatal and postnatal exercises, given that you are performing them up to a safe limit and under proper supervision. However, you can complement it with a balanced diet and positive lifestyle changes for a better result. Also, make sure to never miss your regular check-ups to avoid complications.