Yahoo Shine - Women's Lifestyle | Healthy Living and Fashion Blogs Exercise is very important for a healthy pregnancy, but pregnant weight-lifters have cause controversy. What do you guys think? Personally, I don't think weight-lifting would hurt the baby. If pregnant women want to weight-lift, then they should, but they need to be careful since the center of balance is more off in 3rd-trimester pregnancies. Think of it this way, some tribal women and medieval women did farming during pregnancy, and their babies turned out just fine (take disease out of the equation).
Doesn't labor come at the end of pregnancy? I agree with you. Exercise, though hard, is important, and as long as the person is pretty sure they're being careful and not damaging their body, I can't say I have a problem with it.
I guess it's the stress that can really affect the child. So as long as they're not over-working themselves I wouldn't think that they were doing any real harm.
I don't imagine the tradition of a person being totally idle during the pregnancy is good at all. Someone having a baby should be healthy, and exercise, for their own sake more than the baby's.
My friend ran a few marathons during her pregnancy and her baby (my Godson) came out with a very strong neck and grip. It makes sense if you think about it. Aerobics bounces the baby and forces it to stabilize itself in the womb. Heavy weightlifting seems like unnecessary stress though.
IMO, people should do what they feel capable of doing during pregnancy. If they find themselves in pain or getting overly tired by an activity, don't do it. Otherwise, do. Like most things in life, really.
My mom is a chiropractor and says that she stayed on the job until she was 8 months pregnant with me.
The issue with exercising too vigorously during pregnancy is the increased epinephrine/norepinephrine and other neurochemical responses that can affect the fetus. Also, the increased heart-rate that occurs with exercise can trigger the flight/fight response in the fetus (depending on how far along the pregnancy is) and cause prenatal stress that can be highly detrimental. I agree that some exercise is beneficial to both the mother and fetus, but it's very important not to over do it. It needs to be accounted for, too, how the individual mother feels about exercise during pregnancy. If she worries that exercise can be harmful then she can have both an increased cortisol and dopamine level creating a neurochemical war zone inside her body. However, if she is comfortable with it, then moderate exercise is good. Prism, I was rather shocked to read that your friend ran marathons during her pregnancy. I can't imagine any doctor that would advise that.