Are you counting down the days until your baby arrives? Preparing for a baby goes beyond setting up the nursery—it’s about making the most of your final weeks of pregnancy while ensuring a smooth transition into parenthood. Antenatal or prenatal exercise during pregnancy provides numerous benefits for both you and your baby. It helps relieve common discomforts like back pain, swelling, and constipation. Do some activities that focus on strengthening the core, flexibility, posture improvement, breath work, and relaxation techniques.
Whether you’re a first-time mom or welcoming another little one, here are some of the prenatal activities and exercises for pregnant moms to take note with:
1. Prenatal Yoga
If you’re healthy and have a normal pregnancy, it’s generally safe to continue or begin physical activities like yoga. However, it’s important to consult your obstetrician before starting any workout routine. While exercising is usually safe under normal conditions, always note on the suitable poses and safety guidelines during prenatal yoga activities.
In relation to birth outcomes, meta-analysis showed that women in the yoga groups experienced shorter duration of labour up to 2 hours on average, were 2.5 times more likely to experience a normal vaginal birth, had reduced intravenous analgesic administered and reported higher levels of comfort. (Corrigan, Moran, McGrath, E. & Daly, 2022) At Confinement Angels, we provide to our customers free prenatal yoga sessions to support their pregnancy journey.
Benefits of Prenatal Yoga for Expectant Mothers
- Improve strength and flexibility: Yoga activities are focusing on the pelvic floor, hip, and abdominal core muscles which help to prepare the body for childbirth.
- Improve sleep quality and emotional balance: Research by Harahap (2017) states that yoga effectively affects the quality of sleep of pregnant women because the yoga movement can control breathing and the mind.
- Reduce pregnancy discomforts: Pregnancy can lead to discomforts like lower back pain, swelling, and tension. Yoga helps ease these symptoms by promoting relaxation, improving mobility, and supporting proper spinal alignment through targeted poses and stretches.
- Promote better birth outcomes: Techniques learnt in prenatal yoga, such as focused breathing and visualisation, equip mothers with tools to handle the challenges of labour and enhance their ability to remain calm and centred during the process.
2. Prenatal Swimming
Prenatal swimming (Aqua Pregnancy) is a fantastic way for expectant mothers to stay active and healthy throughout their pregnancy for your antenatal care. Some of the aqua pregnancy classes incorporate a variety of techniques to ensure a comprehensive workout that is safe for both mothers and babies. These include improved cardiovascular health, reduced stress, and relief from common pregnancy discomforts, all in a safe, supportive, and enjoyable environment.
Benefits of Aqua Pregnancy during Pregnancy
- Reduces stress and anxiety: The soothing properties of the warm salt-chlorinated water help to calm the mind and reduce stress levels.
- Address pregnancy-related aches and pains: The buoyancy of water supports your body, relieving pressure on joints and reducing pain. This, together with the Aqua exercises in our Aqua Pregnancy classes, can help relieve common pregnancy-related discomforts such as lower back pain, pelvic pain, and swelling in the legs and feet.
- Aids with sleep quality: Partaking in regular prenatal aqua classes can help you sleep better by promoting relaxation and reducing discomfort.
- Supports blood circulation: Aqua movements boost circulation, which can help pregnant ladies reduce swelling in the legs and feet and improve overall cardiovascular health.
- Prepares the body for labour: Strengthening muscles and relieving tensions through aqua movements can make labour and delivery easier.
3. Pilates
Prenatal Pilates is a gentle yet effective workout designed to support your body throughout pregnancy. It concentrates on strengthening the body with an emphasis on core strength. The aim of prenatal Pilates is to strengthen the muscles and improve posture, balance and flexibility. To-add on, it is also helping to ease discomfort while preparing your body for labor and postpartum recovery.
Benefits of Doing Pilates during Pregnancy
- Calm the nervous system, and lower your blood pressure: Pilates breathing helps to build the stamina required for the mental and emotional strength of labor and delivery
- Since Pilates focus on abdominals, and pelvic floor, it can help you to get prepared during delivery.
- Like yoga, it uses breathing exercises, which can help you relax.
What to Do before Participating in Prenatal Activities
It is important to consult your gynae or professionals before doing any prenatal activities during pregnancy stage. At Confinement Angels, we offer more than just confinement nanny services. We provide a holistic experience for parents-to-be, offering a range of activities that support you from prenatal through postnatal care, as well as services for baby and family.
Sign up with Confinement Angels for confinement nanny services to enjoy prenatal activities like prenatal yoga, aqua pregnancy and more!
P.S – Known as the celebrities’ choice, Confinement Angels provides parents with complete peace of mind and maximum comfort by attending to every single aspect of the confinement experience. All of our confinement nannies undergo rigorous training based on an 108+ hour syllabus, before being subject to another round of stringent evaluation to determine if they are ready to be deployed for assignments. Because at Confinement Angels, we go above and beyond to bring you only the best.
References
Corrigan, L., Moran, P., McGrath, N. et al. The characteristics and effectiveness of pregnancy yoga interventions: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth 22, 250 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-022-04474-9
Harahap, A. (2017). Yoga as an effective way to improve sleep quality. Journal of Sleep Research and Therapy, 33(4), 212-219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdsr.2017.01.001
Smith L (2022) Can Pilates help strengthen your pelvic floor during pregnancy? Patient. https://patient.info/news-and-features/can-pilates-help-strengthen-your-pelvic-floor-during-pregnancy
Healthline (2023) Pilates during pregnancy: Benefits and precautions. Available at: https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness/pilates-during-pregnancy#precautions
