That's Fit

In our Fit Pregnancy feature, blogger Jennifer Jordan speaks her mind about maintaining a healthy pregnancy. Every two weeks through March 31, 2007 she'll weigh in on exercise, diet, wellness and other health-related issues as she manages her own journey from pregnancy to motherhood.

Recently I read an article on americanbaby.com offering four different exercises designed to help women have an easier delivery on their big day. While this seems like it would be helpful, and at the very least give me something on which to concentrate other than driving my husband insane looking at birth announcements, it seems too good to be true, even if these exercises are being recommended by the Mayo Clinic.

Upon closer inspection, I noted that one of the exercises, the Kegel, has been recommended to me throughout my pregnancy for everything from being able to hold in my tinkle when I laugh (and don't YOU laugh, because this phenomenon does occur during and after pregnancy) to rekindling my sex life post-pardum. The others seemed to be a mix of some yoga moves I used to know.

Doesn't it seem like if these exercises really worked every woman would incorporate them into her pregnancy? Wouldn't we have heard more about these miracle exercises from our doctors and other professionals? Had I not signed up for a weekly newsletter I doubt I would've heard about them at all. None of my friends who've had babies--and that would be the majority of them--have made mention of these miracle exercises. Nope, most of them just said take the drugs (meaning the epidural). Hmm. Can you sense my suspicion?

That said, I always follow the motto of why not. After all, could these exercises hurt me or my baby in any way? Probably not. In fact, they might be a welcome addition to the stretching, walking and basic arm work I try to maintain each week as I get closer and closer to a state of what I like to term "waddledom" wherein I am incapable of walking in a straight line or like a normal person due to my pelvis shifting and my hips widening.

Not only that, these are exercises designed, for once, to achieve something other than weight loss and a rock hard bod. Whew! After all, I'm trying to maintain here, not achieve some ridiculous goal of being superwoman while carrying around 30-odd extra pounds. Well, I am still doing my girly push-ups, but that's more just to see if I can still do them. That and the fact that anything I do to get the weight off my back is a good thing.

Add to that the fact that none of these exercises seems too incredibly taxing and you may just keep my attention. If it can't hurt and it's not that hard then why not go for it? The article, and the Mayo Clinic, of course, recommend consulting a physician before trying any new form of exercise to ensure that the individual is up for the task. I couldn't agree with this advice more. Just because something looks easy doesn't mean it is, and one never knows the outcome of trying new things, especially if one has never been pregnant before (this one has not).

If my OBGYNs give me the green light I will attempt to incorporate at least a few of these exercises into my routine. As for their assistance in the ease of my delivery, I suppose we'll just have to wait until the end of March!

Do you have any tips on exercises to help ease delivery? If so, I'd love to hear them.