What are the guidelines and benefits of exercising after birth?
Exercising after the birth of you baby can have many benefits. Research has shown these advantages to women exercise during this time these include:
– Improved mood
– Improved fitness and fatigue
– Improves recovery time
– Decreases the risk for developing future chronic health conditions
– Provides important self care time and social interactions
When you feel ready to get back into exercise it is important and to talk to a health professional to get clearance. Generally walking is a good exercise to start with. You can start slowly and gradually increase. A good way might be using a pedometer and increase the number of steps each day.
Any rigorous exercise such as running or jumping should be avoided for at least 6 weeks and if you have had a caesarean section. You also need to wait at least 6 weeks before doing any abdominal strengthening.
Pelvic floor exercises can be started again few days after birth when you feel ready.
These exercises can help strengthen the muscles of the pelvic floor, which sit between the tailbone and pubic bone at the front. The pelvic floor helps support the uterus, bladder, rectum and vagina. Doing theses exercises regularly can help prevent urinary incontinence and a prolapses later in life. They will also help you heal faster after an episiotomy.
When exercising listen to your body. Don’t push yourself to hard or fast. Try to exercise at least 5 days per week. This could be something like a 30-minute walks, 2x 10-15-minute walks, cycling, and swimming or gentle yoga class.
Pregnancy can cause a separation of your abdominal muscles. This is called a rectus diastasis. For this reason it is important not to do sit ups or crunches until the separation has closed as this can worsen the separation.
There are some specific exercises’ that can help close separation you can talk to a womens health osteopath about these.
Other considerations:
– Wear a supportive bra
– You may want to breastfeed before exercising for comfort
– Initially, exercise for only 10 minutes at a time. Increase the length of your workouts gradually
– Ideally, your exercise sessions should eventually last between 30 and 50 minutes
– Drink plenty of water before, during and after exercise
– Don’t push yourself too hard – if you feel breathless, slow down
– If you experience pain, slow down or stop
Remember that it may take you months to return to your pre-pregnancy shape and weight, so don’t be discouraged by slow progress.
Don’t do too much. Your body needs time to heal. Stop exercising if you have any of the following signs and see your doctor:
– Feeling more fatigued
– Pain
– Colour changes to lochia (post-partum vaginal flow) to pink or red
– Heavier lochia flow
– Lochia flowing again after it has stopped
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This post was written by Dr Janine Symington.
You can find out more about her here or book an appointment online here.
Alternatively, you can call us at the Clinic on 03 9908 2844.