Maternity Fashion And Swimwear

Many women have mixed feelings toward pregnancy and childbirth. While they are thrilled about their approaching motherhood, they fear losing their youthful figure. This is especially true for women in top shape. They do not want to sacrifice all the hard-earned progress they made through regular exercise and strict nutrition. They are afraid their attractive bodies will yield to the droopy breasts and wide hips of the sterotypical new mum.

But the notion that pregnancy spells disaster for a good figure is false. You are in control of your body's shape.

Some women are also concerned about the possibility of a Caesarean section. It's not just the idea of an abdominal scar, but also the posible damage to abdominal muscles. Women also envisage unnatractive stretch marks along their stomachs, believing this is an inescapable side effect of pregnancy.

Following a habit of applying cocoa butter to your stomach both morning and night might help prevent stretch marks from occuring. Good nutrition, particularly adequate zinc, is also believed to benefit the skin and hinder the development of stretch marks. (Always follow a doctor or health practitioners advice when following a nutrition plan).

When to stary baby exercising

The best way to figure out the time to begin exercising after birth is to listen to your body. With normal vaginal deliveries, you can begin exercising when you want, providing no pain is present (and your doctor approves). If you have had an episiotomy, a cut on your perineum, you'll find that pressure on the stitches in this area makes certain exercises uncomfortable. So, you'll probably want to avoid either bicycling or running.

Swimming is also out because the cervix remains dilated for a few weeks after delivery. This cervical dilation allows bacteria to more easily enter your sterile uterus, which can cause an infection.

If you have had a Caesarean section, which is major surgery, get your physician's approval regarding exercises you can do at different stages of recovery.

It's normal to experience some post-partum bleeding. This lasts for 4-5 weeks, but light bleeding may continue for up to eight weeks. This discharge, called lochia, is residual placenta blood. If the lochia stops a week or two after delivery and then suddenly returns at a heavier rate, it suggests uterine relaxation. Such relaxation allows previously closed blood vessels to re-open. if this occurs, cut back on activity and get more rest.

Breast Feeding and Exercise

Some people believe that physical activity may interfere with lactation. This is because breast-feeding requires at least 500 extra calories a day. The fear is that exercise might use the extra calories needed to support lactation. However studies have shown no difference in milk volume and composition, or in plasma hormone levels between active and inactive breast-feeding women.

Do drink lots of fluid to replace lost water resulting from exercise. You also might want to breast-feed before you exercise; it is uncomfortable to exercise with heavy, engorged breasts.

Another advantage of breast-feeding is that it allows you to burn up fat acquired during pregnancy. In fact, lactation is the only time that a women directly taps into usually unavailable essential fat storage sites, such as in the hips and buttocks.

Exercise while lactating may help offset the loss of calcium from bones experienced by sedentary women during lactation. Women who breast-feed more than six monthshave been shown to have bone loss, even though they were consuming more than the recommended daily allowance of calcium. Exercise may prevent this excessive calcium loss.

Special Focus: Pelvic Floor and Abdominals

Two muscle groups strongly affected by pregnancy are the abdominals and those of the pelvic floor. The fasciae, or outer coverings, of the pelvic floor are stretched during pregnancy because they surround the vaginal canal. Once stretched, the fasciae never regain their former shape.

In some women, this stretching causes complications such as the leaking of urine when they exert themselves or even sneeze. The solution to this problem is a series of exercises devised by Dr. Arnold Kegel to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles, particularly the pubococcgeus muscle.

You can isolate the PC muscle by holding back the flow of urine; it is the PC muscle which allows you to do this. The way to exercise this muscle involves tightening it, then holding it for a count of three. Do this 10 times, several times a day. Eventually work up to 25-30 repetitions, five times a day. One advantage of this exercise is you can do it anywhere.

Common errors in exercising the pelvic floor muscles include holding your breath and attempting to bear down. This strains the pelvic floor downward instead of drawing it up, which is what you want to do. Don't tense the abdominals or buttocks instead of the pelvic floor muscles, nor the inner thigh muscles.

During pregnancy, the abdominal muscles sometimes separate in the center to accomodate the growing baby within you. This condition, called diastasis recti, varies from woman to woman. After giving birth, it is important to measure the width of your abdominal separation. You do this by lying on your back and bringing your knees toward your chest. Raise your head and shoulders slightly by stretching your hands towards your feet. Use your fingers to feel for separation in the area of your abdomen around the naval. If the width is wider than two or three fingers, do not do abdominal exercise yet as it would only increase separation.

Prior weakness of the abdominal muscles predisposes a woman to excessive separation during pregnancy. Other factors that can cause this include obesity, multiple pregancy, a large baby, excess fluid in the uterus, or a pendulous abdomen resulting from a prior pregnancy.

A special exercise for separated abdominal muscles; lie on your back on a bed with your knees bent. Cross your hands over the abdominal area so you can pull the muscles toward the midline as you raise your head. Take in a deep breath. As you slowly exhale, raise just your head off the bed while pulling the underlying muscles together with your hands. Return slowly to the horizontal position.

Another point to remember when exercising your abdominals is to keep your knees bent to avoid hip flexor involvement. Doing full leg raises or sit-ups with feet held down throws the focus of the exercise from the abdominals to the hip flexors. This is bad because the hip flexor group pulls in your lower back, and such pulling can cause back problems. The best abdominal exercises (assuming you do not have excessive abdominal separation) are crunches or partial sit-ups and reverse sit-ups for the lower abdominals.

Exercising with baby

You can begin exercising with your baby a few weeks after giving birth. Providing your baby with touch and movement experiences will enrich his or her potential for development. Encouraging your baby to enjoy a wide range of movement brings about increased confidence, coordination and enjoyment of sport and exercise.

You should encourage your baby's participation in exercise, but do not force it. Things like naps, nappy changes and general fussing will inevitably occur. n the first three months, move your baby slowly to allow for lack of head control.