Decades ago, conventional wisdom led women to believe that they were extremely fragile during pregnancy. This meant halting all physical activities such as exercise and basically becoming a couch potato. Thankfully, today women know better than that.

Exercise does wonders during pregnancy, because it greatly improves your overall health and wellbeing. It boosts mood, enhances the quality of sleep, reduces pregnancy aches and pains, and prepares you for childbirth by strengthening muscles and building endurance. This is especially important because during pregnancy and childbirth, a woman’s body is subjected to a great deal of stress. Exercise also makes it much easier to get back in shape after your baby’s born, and helps ease constipation, backache, fatigue, varicose veins, circulation problems and other health issues related to pregnancy.  (more…)