Previously, we covered What You Can And Can’t Eat and Drink During Pregnancy. Now, we want to find out what’s safe for Mrs Wrincs to do. What can and can’t you do during pregnancy? This includes exercise, leisure activities and other little things that might be impacted by carrying a human inside you.
I Am Not An Expert – This Is Not Advice
Disclaimer: I’m not an expert and don’t know what I’m doing. Even official advice can vary in different parts of the world. This is not an “Ultimate Guide To Everything You Can and Can’t Do When Pregnant”. This is just me and my wife picking the next logical thing to figure out, researching it as best we can and writing it here to organise our thoughts. If it’s helpful to anyone, great. But, please do your own research, speak to professionals (when possible) and don’t be offended if we didn’t come to the same conclusions you did. Please let me know if you have advice or disagree. Try not to call me names if I’ve said something stupid, but if it entertains you, I can take it, so make it good.
We’re doing this research together (when Mrs Wrincs feels well enough – which, lately, hasn’t been often) and I’m just the one who’s posting it.
Exercise
NHS
You can see the full Exercise in Pregnancy article on the NHS website here.
The more active and fit you are during pregnancy, the easier it will be for you to adapt to your changing shape and weight gain. It will also help you to cope with labour and get back into shape after the birth. Exercise is not dangerous for your baby.
Do not exhaust yourself. You may need to slow down as your pregnancy progresses or if your maternity team advises you to. If in doubt, consult your maternity team.
As a general rule, you should be able to hold a conversation as you exercise when pregnant. If you become breathless as you talk, then you’re probably exercising too strenuously.
Do not suddenly take up strenuous exercise if you were not active before you got pregnant. If you start an aerobic exercise programme (such as running, swimming, cycling or aerobics classes), tell the instructor that you’re pregnant and begin with no more than 15 minutes of continuous exercise, 3 times a week. Increase this gradually to daily 30-minute sessions.
Exercise Tips When You’re Pregnant
- Always warm-up before exercising, and cool down afterwards.
- Try to keep active on a daily basis – 30 minutes of walking each day can be enough, but if you cannot manage that, any amount is better than nothing.
- Avoid any strenuous exercise in hot weather.
- Drink plenty of water and other fluids.
- If you go to exercise classes, make sure your teacher is properly qualified and knows that you’re pregnant, as well as how many weeks pregnant you are.
- You might like to try swimming because the water will support your increased weight. Some local swimming pools provide aqua-natal classes with qualified instructors.
- Exercises that have a risk of falling, such as horse riding, downhill skiing, ice hockey, gymnastics and cycling, should only be done with caution. Falls carry a risk of damage to your baby.
Exercises To Avoid In Pregnancy
- Do not lie flat on your back for long periods, particularly after 16 weeks, because the weight of your bump presses on the main blood vessel bringing blood back to your heart and this can make you feel faint.
- Don’t take part in contact sports where there’s a risk of being hit, such as kickboxing, judo or squash.
- Do not go scuba diving, because the baby has no protection against decompression sickness and gas embolism (gas bubbles in the bloodstream).
- Do not exercise at heights over 2,500m above sea level – this is because you and your baby are at risk of altitude sickness.
Exercises For A Fitter Pregnancy
Stomach strengthening exercises
- Start in a box position (on all 4s) with knees under hips, hands under shoulders, with fingers facing forward and abdominals lifted to keep your back straight.
- Pull in your stomach muscles and raise your back up towards the ceiling, curling your trunk and allowing your head to relax gently forward. Do not let your elbows lock.
- Hold for a few seconds then slowly return to the box position.
- Take care not to hollow your back: it should always return to a straight/neutral position.
- Do this slowly and rhythmically 10 times, making your muscles work hard and moving your back carefully.
- Only move your back as far as you can comfortably.
Pelvic Tilt Exercises
- Stand with your shoulders and bottom against a wall.
- Keep your knees soft.
- Pull your tummy button towards your spine, so that your back flattens against the wall: hold for 4 seconds then release.
- Repeat up to 10 times.
Pelvic Floor Exercises (Kegels)
Pelvic floor exercises help to strengthen the muscles of the pelvic floor, which come under great strain in pregnancy and childbirth. The pelvic floor consists of layers of muscles that stretch like a supportive hammock from the pubic bone (in front) to the end of the backbone (spine).
If your pelvic floor muscles are weak, you may find that you leak urine when you cough, sneeze or strain. This is quite common, and there is no reason to feel embarrassed. It’s known as stress incontinence and it can continue after pregnancy.
- Close up your bottom, as if you’re trying to stop yourself going to the toilet.
- At the same time, draw in your vagina as if you’re gripping a tampon, and your urethra as if to stop the flow of urine.
- At first, do this exercise quickly, tightening and releasing the muscles immediately.
- Then do it slowly, holding the contractions for as long as you can before you relax: try to count to 10.
- Try to do 3 sets of 8 squeezes every day: to help you remember, you could do a set at each meal.
As well as these exercises, practice tightening the pelvic floor muscles before and during coughing and sneezing.
We did find some suggestions online that pelvic floor exercises might have negative effects but couldn’t find anything official or significant enough to go against the official NHS advice.
Other Exercise Research
Weightlifting
This is a complex form of exercise to cover. Before I get into a few things we’ve found, I want to make this clear – if you’re planning on strength training during pregnancy, even if you’re continuing on from doing so pre-pregnancy, it’s always best to check with your doctor or midwife first.
We found some good resources (not as significant as the NHS or major studies) relating to weightlifting in pregnancy. The best of which was this Women’s Health Magazine article. It’s worth a read and contains a lot more interesting information than we’ve included here.
Benefits of strength training during pregnancy:
- Strength training can help with carrying the added weight of pregnancy, ease back ache and strengthen your joints.
- Strengthening work improves the control you have over your muscles and helps to build stamina. Both will help during labour.
- The benefits will help you handle lifting and carrying your newborn child.
You can even go weight-free. There are great benefits from bodyweight movements and using resistance bands.
A few exercises to focus on:
- Deadlifts – activate and strengthen hamstrings, glutes and back muscles.
- Squats – build leg and glute strength to support you during pregnancy.
- Rows – opens the chest and strengthens the upper back which helps support good posture as your breasts grow.
Some warnings:
- There is a pregnancy hormone called relaxin. It helps soften the ligaments around your joints during pregnancy and prepares your pelvis and cervix for birth. The result can make heavy weight training more dangerous as your joints become less stable.
- Don’t over-exert yourself.
- I’ve seen advice to avoid lifting weights while lying on your back, choose seated movements over lying down and be careful lifting weights over your head in the last three months.
- Don’t hold your breath.
- And I’ll say this again because it is incredibly important; If you’re planning on strength training during pregnancy, speak with your doctor or midwife first. Go into detail about movements, exercises and routines.
Yoga
Yoga is often encouraged during pregnancy. You can even find prenatal yoga classes. If you go to a class, tell the instructor that you’re pregnant and don’t over-exert yourself.
Cycling
There doesn’t seem to be any potential harm from the pressure or position in cycling; just from the risk of falling. Exercise bikes are therefore entirely fine and I guess riding a bicycle just comes down to how much of risk you think there is of falling and if you think that’s worth it.
Mrs Wrincs thinks there are other ways to exercise without a risk of falling so she’s just going to avoid bikes.
Other Activities and Considerations
Hot Tubs
There’s little research on using saunas, jacuzzis, hot tubs and steam rooms during pregnancy. But it’s advisable to avoid them (from the NHS) because of the risks of overheating, dehydration and fainting.
Sleeping
New research confirms that the risk of stillbirth is doubled if women go to sleep on their backs in the third trimester (after 28 weeks). If you wake up on your back, simply roll back onto your side.
We’ve seen suggestions that sleeping on your left side is better than on the right but that seems to be based on a small study from New Zealand. There have been a number of studies since that have not shown the same correlation so either side seems perfectly fine.
There are also claims that it can help to have a pillow under your bump, behind your back and between your knees. The official guidance on this is vague, so we’re going to see how Mrs Wrincs gets on and if she wants to try it, we’ll give it a go and maybe try a pregnancy pillow.
Litter Trays
I heard that pregnant women should stay away from litter trays and assumed it was nauseous mums-to-be just wanting to get out of poop duty. Close contact with cat faeces does, in fact, carry a risk of toxoplasmosis (from the NHS). We don’t have a cat, but Mrs Wrincs will steer clear. You cannot catch toxoplasmosis from stroking a cat, having a cat as a pet or from coming into contact with someone who’s got it.
Farm Animals
The NHS recommend not to touch or handle pregnant sheep or lambs (also linked to toxoplasmosis). I’ve seen this advice extended to cows and goats and even to animals that have recently given birth. We don’t feel like this is a big problem for us, so we’ll just stay away.
Gardening
For the same reason (toxoplasmosis), you should be careful when gardening. Even if you do not have a cat, wear gloves if gardening in case the soil is contaminated with faeces and wash your hands and gloves after.
Sunbeds
From the NHS – Pregnant women often find their skin is more sensitive than usual. If you use a sunbed when you’re pregnant, this means your skin may be more likely to burn. Direct and prolonged exposure to UV light also carries the risk of overheating for both you and your unborn baby. There is currently no clear evidence about the effect of UV rays from sunbeds on an unborn baby. Some studies have suggested there may be a link between increased UV rays and folic acid deficiency.
It’s generally considered safe to use fake tan creams and lotions during pregnancy. Just read the label.
We’re very careful with sun lotion and don’t use sunbeds. This won’t be a problem.
Home Renovations
From the NHS – It’s highly unlikely that painting or being around paint fumes while you’re pregnant will harm your unborn baby, as the risk from most modern household paints is very low. The risk of harm to your baby may be slightly greater from solvent-based paints and old paintwork, which may contain traces of lead. If you choose to paint and decorate when you’re pregnant, you can reduce any potential risks by:
- not painting and decorating until at least week 13 of your pregnancy (any possible small risk there is to your baby would be greatest during weeks 0 to 12, as this is when your baby’s organs start to develop)
- using water-based paints instead of solvent-based ones and spray paints, which contain solvents
- making sure any room you paint in is well ventilated by opening all windows or doors
- wearing protective clothing like gloves, long trousers, face masks, long-sleeved tops, and goggles
- not eating or drinking in the room you’re decorating
- washing your hands when you’ve finished painting so you do not accidentally swallow any of the decorating materials
For general home improvements/renovations, there doesn’t seem to be a lot or official guidance. We’ve cobbled together some information from construction websites, forums, common sense and a few other places but you should be aware that this is not from official sources.
Ask any professionals and suppliers as many questions as necessary for you to feel comfortable. Tell them you’re pregnant and ask for details on materials, dust, chemicals and anything else that could be harmful.
We had moved into a new home just before we found out we were pregnant and we’d already booked in for the kitchen, bathroom, my home office, the plumbing and electrics to be done. Nothing has come up that’s enough for us to cancel or delay.
The only thing we’ve been a little wary of is dust. It sounds like it doesn’t have to be from harmful materials for the dust to be problematic if there is enough of it. We keep asking questions and we’ve done our best to keep Mrs Wrincs away (even if that’s just by shutting doors) while the work is being done. We are willing to delay, cancel or make sure she’s not in if anything seems risky. I’ve seen suggestions on a few sites that you could get a half-face respirator mask with P100 filters. I’m sure my wife will look lovely in that. We haven’t had a need for that yet, but it’s good to know.
Hair Dye
From the NHS – The chemicals in permanent and semi-permanent hair dyes are not highly toxic. Most research, although limited, shows it’s safe to colour your hair while pregnant. Some studies have found that very high doses of the chemicals in hair dyes may cause harm. However, these doses are massive compared with the very low amount of chemicals a woman is exposed to when colouring her hair. Many women decide to wait to dye their hair until after the first 12 weeks of pregnancy when the risk of chemical substances harming the baby is much lower. If you’re colouring your hair yourself, you can reduce the risk further by making sure you:
- wear gloves
- leave the dye on for the minimum time
- work in a well-ventilated room
- rinse your scalp once the dye is applied
Mrs Wrincs has just had her hair dyed last week (before 12 weeks). She asked a lot of questions and her hairdresser was very helpful. Where she’s been struggling and feeling sorry for herself, it was something she wanted to do and I’m glad she did. We were a little worried about her having to be there for a few hours (if she needed to be sick or started to feel drained), but it was okay and she’s got a nice new hair colour.
Massage Guns
We have a massage gun (also known as a percussion massage gun) and love it. This is another topic made up of unofficial information from various sources. The gun comes with a warning for use while pregnant (not a great start) but it looks like it should be safe to use on your shoulders and neck. Do not take that as advice, though. We haven’t had a chance to ask a doctor.
Topical Creams, Ointments and Lotions
We did find some information but there is no general guideline I would feel comfortable including here. This one is simple, speak to a medical professional about any creams, ointments and lotions while pregnant before using them.
Can You Use a Microwave While Pregnant?
Yes.
How Mrs Wrincs Feels
Again, none of this has been especially demoralising for her. She’d love to get in a hot tub or use the massage gun but she doesn’t mind all that much. They don’t feel like huge sacrifices for the sake of being careful. Mrs Wrincs has often talked (quite excitedly) about the things she could do and ways she could exercise while pregnant but she’s just been too unwell. The medication has helped but she’s still nowhere near doing anything other than rare and short walks.
Pregnancy plans are great until being pregnant gets in the way.
Everyone’s Different
Just to reiterate: This is not intended to be a guide. Just a log and breakdown of the information we’ve found and how we’ve interpreted it. I’m not an expert (very far from it); I’m just doing my best for our new family. If it’s useful to anyone, that’s great. This is not the “right answer”. This is just how an idiot and his wife approached a complicated topic.
Next Pregnancy Post: Additional Nutritional Considerations During Pregnancy
Previous Pregnancy Post: What You Can and Can’t Eat and Drink During Pregnancy
First Pregnancy Post: I’m Pregnant. Now What?