Pregnancy and childbirth are arguably the most difficult physical challenges a woman will face in her lifetime. Posture, ligament strength and pelvic floor muscles are all compromised to make space for the latest addition to the family, not to mention swollen legs, bladder weakness and varicose veins.
While returning to exercise can help correct some holdover issues, the prospect is understandably daunting to most new mums.
A new monthly workshop at the Bodytree studio in Abu Dhabi, conducted by Jade Lucas-Read, a British physiotherapist at the Canadian Medical Centre who specialises in prenatal and post-partum workouts, aims to help ease them into it.
“It can be tempting to get back into the old fitness regime as soon as possible to shake off excess weight,” Read says. “But exercise done the wrong way can create more problems. Before you even think about going back to exercising, you need to make sure you can feel your pelvic floor muscles and your transversus abdominis muscle. They are your core muscles.”
Read says it is possible to return to gentle exercise three weeks after a natural childbirth.
“It’s about reprogramming our brains more than anything,” she explains.
“Between three and eight weeks, you can swim – the breaststroke is good. You can also cycle and do Pilates.”
Women who have had Cesarean sections should wait six to eight weeks to resume exercise.
Read suggests attending postnatal exercise classes if available, or a beginner’s exercise classes if not.
One workshop attendee, Lisa Dore, gave birth to twins – a boy and girl – 11 weeks ago.
The 32-year-old, who also has a toddler, used to work out five times a week, doing everything from yoga and Pilates to spinning classes. But becoming pregnant with twins meant adapting her fitness habits.
“I couldn’t do the kinds of exercising I had been doing, like lifting weights. I was definitely tired. When I was four months pregnant, I started swimming, which was wonderful, especially as I got bigger. I was swimming four to six times a week until I was induced at 37 weeks. Being active until the very end helped recovery-wise, because I didn’t have to try as hard to get back to my former fitness level.
“But nowadays, I don’t have as much time to exercise as I did. But I’m doing some weightlifting, and I went back to swimming three weeks ago. With breastfeeding, my body gets really tense so it’s helpful to be in a place where I can stretch out and work on those muscle strains.”
Dore also stays active by walking her dog while pushing her oldest son in his stroller.
“It’s a special mummy-big kid time for us,” she explains.
Mums whose main form of post-partum exercise involves pushing a stroller can focus on tightening their core and holding their stomachs in, suggests Read.
“You should be upright, and your elbows should be flexed at a little bit more than 90 degrees.
“Using a baby carrier is more likely to benefit your recovery than a stroller. But the baby’s legs must be supported. You should carry him high up on your body, but not so that the shoulders are hitched.”
• The next Bodytree workshop for new and pregnant mums is on February 17 from 12 noon to 1.30pm and on February 18 from 7.15pm to 8.45pm; Dh150 per person. Email info@bodytreestudio.com to register.
Fatima Abdullah: how I did it
Emirati Fatima Abdullah is a 32-year-old contract manager and a mother of three. Decades ago in Abu Dhabi, when her own mother was pregnant, expectant mums were told to try to rest as much as possible.
A generation later, when Abdullah was going through her pregnancies (with Haya, 6, Alyaa, 3, and 8-month-old Khalid), she had to reconcile her mum’s warnings to rest with her own urge to lose her baby weight.
“My mother’s advice was always ‘don’t move, just relax’. But when she was pregnant, she also had to take care of the house and was always active. Immediately after my grandmother gave birth, I’m told she got up and cooked dinner for my grandfather. So there was no need for my mother or grandmother to work out. They didn’t have our comfortable lifestyle.
“With my first child I followed my mother’s advice but gained a lot of weight, which I struggled to shed afterwards. With the second baby, I was eating more healthily and went swimming occasionally. But it was as though my mother was in the pool with me, telling me: ‘Take care! Take care!’
“With the third pregnancy, I combined good food with working out regularly and it made a world of difference. I was doing low-impact workouts, yoga and stretches. It lifted my energy levels and I was able to move much better.
“I delivered my baby naturally and I felt that the strengthened muscles really helped out.”
Abdullah says she rested for seven weeks before attempting low-impact exercises. Of late, she has been working out six times a week in preparation for a half-marathon this month.
“I’m not aiming to have chiselled muscles,” she says. “Nothing too crazy – I just want to look normal.”
artslife@thenational.ae