“The year before falling pregnant I was at my very fittest, running 5km in 25 minutes and 10km in 52 minutes. I ran or went to gym classes 6 times a week, as well as eating a fairly healthy diet. Exercising during pregnancy has been a challenge, at the beginning it was like I wasn’t pregnant I could do everything the same as normal but obviously being a little more cautious to not overdo it. Then I started to notice that it took me longer to run 5km, I had to stop for water more frequently from about week 14 onwards.
Come week 24 although I wasn’t majorly showing yet, I couldn’t really run due to needing the toilet so desperately. I didn’t normally actually need to go, it was just where the baby was getting bigger and pushing on my bladder. I wasn’t accepting that my body wasn’t letting me run and I tried to persevere for weeks but now I go for long walks and try to include a few small jogs in between, if I feel comfortable enough to do so. I do pregnancy workouts from YouTube and other apps too, which are good but at first it felt like I was cheating because they didn’t seem hard enough. The further I go on this journey, the harder they have become because of the extra weight I’m carrying, not to mention the fatigue that I feel after doing even a small task, let alone working out.
One person said, “exercise in pregnancy is not about having an exercise goal it’s about keeping you and your baby healthy” and that’s something I have grown to learn over time. Body change in pregnancy has definitely been the hardest part for me though, I didn’t accept my body changing and at first it’s because I just looked bloated and did for quite some time, so it wasn’t obvious I was pregnant. I’m 30 weeks pregnant now and the main thing I’ve learnt during this experience, is to not put too much pressure on yourself.”
