Keeping in shape while pregnant

Ebony, August, 1998

FOR years, pregnancy has been a woman's favorite reason to indulge. Mothers-to-be could look forward to loading up on extra calories and taking it easy, all for the sake of baby. While the reality sometimes differed for Sisters, who worked full-time on the job and then at home until nearly the day of delivery, many still longed for the luxury of lying in bed all day or eating extra helpings of mama's sweet-potato pie.

But today, many doctors warn against the lounge-and-eat-as-much-as-you-can mentality that plagues some expectant moms. Unlike experts of past generations who restricted exercise during pregnancy out of fear that it might harm the fetus, modern wisdom encourages physical activity by pregnant women.

Keeping in shape while pregnant provides a number of benefits--everything from reducing backaches and swelling to making labor and delivery go more smoothly to improving your complexion and posture and boosting your energy. "The main reason that exercise is important is that it helps you feel better," says Dr. Gwinnett McGhee Ladson, assistant professor of OB/GYN at Meharry Medical College. "It increases your stamina and helps to strengthen the heart. Some people even feel that women who exercise regularly have a less painful and easier delivery."

Dr. McGhee Ladson believes that exercise during pregnancy is vital. Along with easing aches and pains, it can help with a speedy postpartum recovery. Some experts say exercise can also lessen depression and boost your mood. Beginning exercisers, Dr. McGhee Ladson says, should start out slowly. They should wear loose-fitting clothing with a support bra and comfortable shoes, and they should stick to simple exercises like walking.

Dressed in a boxy Winnie-the-Pooh short-set, Katrina Dancy-Richardson, a 29-year-old mother-to-be, follows that advice to a tee. She begins her daily workout with a warm-up routine of stretches and then she takes a quick-paced walk through her scenic suburban Chicago neighborhood. The expectant mother ends her power-walk a half-hour to an hour later by slowing her stride to a leisurely stroll. In the first trimester of her pregnancy, the staff systems programmer for Allstate Insurance Co. says she did more intense exercises such as aerobics and mall-walking. But as she neared this month's due date, she adjusted her regimen to fit her new rounded form. "The doctor told me I could continue my exercise routine as long as I didn't overdo it," she says, as she takes determined steps on the treadmill in her basement. "As I've gotten farther along, I've started walking outside more. The good weather has been helping out a lot." When the weather does not permit out to walk outside, she works out on the treadmill in her home.

Walking can be an easy entrance to physical fitness for women unaccustomed to exercise, medical experts say. "Walking is the perfect exercise [for pregnant women]," says Dr. Yvonne S. Thornton in her book, Woman to Woman: A Leading Gynecologist Tells You All You Need to Know About Your Body and Your Health. "But that is walking half an hour a day in the open air, not walking back and forth to the copy machine in an office."

Dr. Thornton says some women have the idealistic vision that they'll become fitness gurus when they're pregnant. But the truth is most people, not only those who are expecting, are sedentary, she says.

"America is a culture of convenience," says Dr Thornton, the associate clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. "We go to the movies and sit in front of television sets. The biggest exercise we do going against the tide in the bathtub to take the stopper out. Exercise is what everyone would like to do, but it [usually] doesn't happen."

She concurs with Dr. McGhee Ladson that first-time exercisers should take it slow. Anything more than walking or swimming for women who are not used to exercise may even be harmful to an expectant mother's body, she says.

"[Strenuous exercise] is the worst thing you can do if your body is not accustomed to it," Dr. Thornton says. "It will divert oxygen to muscles that are being used in exercising as opposed to flowing into the uterus."

Other light exercises good for expectant moms include cycling on a stationary bike, swimming, stretching and low-impact aerobics. Dr. McGhee Ladson says women can also do Kegel exercises, where they constrict and relax their vaginal muscles, and pelvic rock movements done on their hands and knees to strengthen the body's pelvic floor, which can aid in delivery.

Many experts say that expectant moms should avoid high-impact aerobics, downhill skiing, horseback riding, roller-blading, scuba diving and long-distance running. But Dr. Thornton says pregnant women accustomed to exercise can continue most parts of their regimen as long as they understand the risks. Generally, you want to stay away from any jerking activity that could cause trauma to your body. As pregnancy wears on, doctors say, women can lose some of their balance as the center of gravity moves forward and their stomachs blossom into motherly shapes. This condition can impose new restrictions on women who engage in sports that require balance, such as bowling and bicycling.