Tag Archives: Pregnancy Emotions

Exercises, Fitness, Mental Wellbeing and Motivation, Recovery and Prevention, Yoga and Stretching

PREGNANCY EXERCISES. Where To Start?

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If you are an expectant mum, whether this is your first pregnancy or not, this is an important time in your life. You want to stay healthy and well for yourself and your baby.  And staying active can help you to do exactly this!

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Want to move fast? Jump to the right section below.

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At first, we would suggest you to consider very basics in a relation of exercise and pregnancy. You can visit NHS website to familiarise yourself with some simple exercise tips for expectant mums.

BENEFITS OF STAYING ACTIVE IN PREGNANCY

Physical activity will help you to sleep better, control pregnancy weight gain, improve your mood, just to name few benefits.

Expect to be less tempted to take part in physical activity in your first trimester due to morning sickness and your body getting used to a new way of existing. However if you manage to do some type of activity you will feel miles better for it! Don’t worry if you cannot, most pregnant women are ready to do more in second and third trimester.

START WHERE YOU ARE

Don’t overdo it! Think about your current activity levels. Whether try to maintain these or build up gradually if you are not achieving daily recommended dose of exercise. Always remember to be gentle with yourself, one step at a time.

ENJOYMENT

Make sure you enjoy what you do! You want to increase positive energy in your life. You can try Pregnancy Yoga, swimming or just stick with daily walking. You can get yourself some nice equipment to boost your motivation too.

SOCIALISE

Now, during the Covid-19 pandemic, there are many online classes for pregnant women, a good example being Us Mums programme (East Yorkshire, Hull). Check you local exercise providers and connect with other expectant mums to avoid social isolation. Mental well-being is at least as important as staying physically active! Please read more about this HERE.

PROFESSIONAL ADVICE

Exercise adaptations for each trimester differ. Seek an advice from a fully qualified and experienced pre/post natal instructor to be entirely sure that you are performing exercises in a safe and effective manner, especially if you do home workouts. We would recommend to use REPs registered exercise professionals.

PELVIC FLOOR HEALTH

We cannot stress enough how important it is to take this seriously! Your pelvic floor can be weakened by pregnancy and you don’t want this to happen. In a long run it can cause urinary incontinence and even more serious problems. This is why you MUST include pelvic floor exercises in your daily self-care routine. You will find more information at NHS website and you can find many health professionals, including women’s health physiotherapists, advocating pelvic floor exercises.

Diane Mawer, Clinical Lead for physiotherapy in obstetrics talks to mums in the pelvic health workshop in Hull (Image: Joanna Lovell)

Have you ever before been told to do Pelvic Floor exercises? Please let us know in the comments section below!

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY….

It is baby steps. Don’t rush. Take your time & enjoy this beautiful journey to the motherhood!

Keep an eye on our learn section, more advice about health and exercise in pregnancy coming soon!

Exercises, Fitness, Mental Wellbeing and Motivation, Recovery and Prevention, Yoga and Stretching

BE PREGNANT. BE HAPPY. STAY CONNECTED.

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“Carrying a baby is the most rewarding experience a woman can enjoy.” – Jayne Mansfield

WE ALL HAVE OUR OWN WAYS

Being happy during pregnancy is not only very possible but also important for mother’s and baby’s health. Each women will have her own ways of keeping herself in emotionally and mentally good shape. There are many tools for you to use, such as:

However, we wanted to highlight such underestimated thing as connecting with other expectant mums. Before revealing more of this, we have to understand WHY it is important.

YOUR EMOTIONS AND FEELINGS MATTER

Have your heard about anxiety, depression and similar non-positive experiences pregnant women can face during and after their pregnancy? We don’t want to scare you, however we want to make sure that you know importance of respecting your emotions and feelings early in the pregnancy (and even before!) to avoid experiencing such things.

This is called Perinatal Mental Health. And it matters.

Just be aware. Read up on this and listen to other expectant mums to gain an insight into this topic just simply to avoid it from happening with you. And if it does, don’t worry! There is a great support and help available for expectant and new mums.

The last thing you want to be feeling is loneliness. Sometimes just by having a chat with other pregnant women can help massively. This has a power to reduce likelihood of ending up with some type of mental health problems.

CONNECTING WITH OTHER EXPECTANT MUMS

Keep it simple. You don’t need to find a girlfriend which will become your best friend forever. You just need to surround yourself with women who are pregnant, the same as you.

You can either find some local mums-to-be groups or connect online! Nowadays distance is non-existent. Especially now, during the Covid-19 pandemic, this might be the best and safest option for yourself. Online meet-up groups via Zoom is a great way to connect and build a support network around yourself.

Connecting with other mums over a cuppa and having a friendly chat sometimes is everything you need! Whatever it takes for you to avoid social isolation and feeling lonely. It’s great to share worries and stories, ideas and expectations. And sometimes just to discuss what’s new on Netflix.

SOME IDEAS

In UK many expectant mums are looking to connect with others and there are different groups and websites for women like yourself. As example, net-mums website is a great source to find ante-natal courses and local groups and there are many charities offering support to pregnant women across the country.

And, if you live in Yorkshire, there are many activities in Hull and East Yorkshire for young parents, including the Us Mums programme which offers free online exercise sessions, mediation and meet-up groups for pregnant women and new mums.

Has this blog post encouraged you to look out for other mums to be? Let us know in comments section below!

We are very confident that you can find suitable and positive way how to connect with other expectant mums. Now it’s over to you… Go, find it & just give it a go!