What You Can Do During Pregnancy to Make Your Birth + Postpartum Experience Easier
At the risk of being overly obvious with this one, I’m still going to cover it because however obvious it may be, it is still a topic that needs a spotlight! If making your pregnancy, labor, birth AND postpartum (early and later) experience easier on yourself is a priority for you, then strength training should absolutely be part of your game plan! In this blog post, I will cover all the various ways that strength training during pregnancy can help make your life easier down the road.
The Different Seasons of Pregnancy
Before we get into the nitty gritty of all the ways that strength training can benefit you during your pregnancy and far beyond, I want to offer a moment of understanding and empathy. If your pregnancy has been rough on you and the LAST thing you want to think about is working out, strength training or anything else that requires an ounce of extra energy, then I would encourage you to save this post for a different season of your pregnancy when you’re feeling more ready to include activity into your routine.
Pregnancy is a journey, and if you are in a time of that journey where you’re experiencing some negative pregnancy symptoms like nausea, fatigue or just generally not feeling well, I want to be the FIRST to tell you that that is OKAY. You are not alone and pregnancy is not a time to disregard or ignore the things that your body is trying to tell you. Remember, “this too shall pass”, and in that passing will then come a new season where you may feel more ready to step out of survival mode and into a new mode where you can focus a little more on preventative habits.
If you’re in that space now, where prevention is top of mind and you’re brainstorming ALL the ways you can make the rest of your pregnancy, labor, birth and postpartum easier on yourself, then you’ve come to the right place. Let’s dive in!
The Purpose Behind Strength Training During Pregnancy
I mentioned “prevention” up above, and that truly is one of the main purposes behind strength training during pregnancy. But there’s so much more to it than that!
I’m someone who loves research and looking into the outcomes of various techniques, strategies, and treatments, and one thing that strength training paired with mobility during pregnancy can do for you is improve your outcomes! Learning how to move your body, with mobility AND strength training, while integrating your pelvic floor is the key to improving all of those outcomes.
And lastly, when you’ve been prioritizing mobility and strength training during your pregnancy, that gives you everything you need to feel empowered, confident and prepared going into your labor, birth and postpartum experience. When you have focused on strength training throughout your pregnancy, then you are prepared and you are ready! Now, it’s just time to trust yourself through the rest of it!
Remember, these are tips for being in a neutral position, which is of course ideal, but not always realistic when you are moving around and doing various things. Overall, just make it a goal to be aware of neutral positioning and return to neutral in the moments that you are able to!
The Benefits of Strength Training During Pregnancy
I want to preface this by saying, it’s not JUST about strength training. There’s more to it than that. You really have to be intentional about the way you are strength training to ensure you are also incorporating your breath work and your pelvic floor, as well as combining your strength training routine with a great mobility routine. When you’ve found a way to combine all of that into a consistent routine…that’s when the magic happens!
Benefits during pregnancy
Feeling stronger during pregnancy - despite what some may say, yes, you can absolutely improve your strength during pregnancy, not just maintain!
Less fatigue - isn’t it somewhat counterintuitive to think that fatiguing our muscles will somehow gain us more energy?? But it’s true! Strength training can definitely help combat that prenatal fatigue.
Decreasing the severity of Diastasis Recti - while there’s nothing you can do to keep yourself from getting DR (some of us are more predisposed than others), a strategic and specific program can help to reduce the severity, making postpartum recovery that much easier.
Preventing leakage and prolapse - while the answer isn’t always black and white with these two things, oftentimes weakness is part of the equation (along with misplaced pressure), and a great strength training program will help in combating these two.
how strength training + labor prep can help
As far as benefits during labor and birth, starting to move your strength training program into a labor prep focused program is an amazing strategy to have during the last half of your third trimester. Here are a few ways strength training and labor prep can help:
Pelvic floor relaxation focus - if your labor prep includes pelvic floor relaxation techniques (which if not, it absolutely SHOULD), then you will definitely benefit from this during your labor and birth experience as pelvic floor relaxation must happen in order for baby to be able to come through those muscles!
Improved mobility to be able to get into the right position for you! Focusing on pelvic and hip mobility in general, as well as hip internal rotation will be such a great way to help get you in an “open” position during birth for baby to come through the pelvic canal.
Strength and stamina - labor is often one of the HARDEST events to experience and go through. It will take strength and stamina to get through both labor and birth, and of course, strength training during pregnancy will get you that much more prepared for tolerating those events.
Postpartum benefits
Reduced postpartum symptoms to have to combat - so if one of the pregnancy benefits from strength training during pregnancy is leakage and prolapse prevention as well as decreased severity of DR, then when you get to the postpartum time if you don’t have all those things to try to recover from and rehab, you are starting out at such a better place than you would if you DID have to rehab those types of postpartum symptoms.
Less muscle loss/ability to feel prepared for strength training again. When you feel ready to get back into strength training in the postpartum time, you will be starting at a much higher level than you would if you hadn’t been strength training during your pregnancy. These are just facts. If you prioritize strength training while pregnant, you will be that much more advanced when you get back into it postpartum than if you hadn’t been doing that throughout your pregnancy.
Muscle memory - When you’ve established “muscle memory” during your pregnancy, that muscle memory (while a little sluggish postpartum), will still be there for you to reconnect to when you’re ready! All that work you do during your pregnancy is not all for not…it is so beneficial when it comes to reconnecting again after birth.
An overall “easier” postpartum recovery - all that strength training and preparing you did during your pregnancy will pay off when you are recovering from labor and birth! Your body will be more ready for it and therefore make recovery easier for you than it would if you hadn’t had that preventative mindset and taken those preventative actions!
Know you want to prioritize strength training during pregnancy but you’re not sure where to start?
If you’re in a place during your pregnancy where you are READY and EAGER to start strength training, working on your pelvic floor and learning how to connect with your breath all while combining that with a fantastic mobility program, then you’ve come to the right place!
Mind Body Core is everything you need and MORE for knowing EXACTLY what to do during your entire pregnancy for strength, mobility, pelvic floor and core work as well as all the education you could ever need for being as prepared as possible through each trimester, labor, birth and even early postpartum.
If you’re ready, I’m ready to welcome you in to the amazing MBC community! Make sure to click the button below to learn more about both Mind Body Core: Prenatal Program and make sure to check out the Postpartum program while you’re in there!