Midwife Tracey Owen describes the things women can do during pregnancy to make their birth an easier experience.
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Tracey: Exercising when you’re pregnant helps you to become fitter. The fitter you are, obviously, the easier labour is for you and potentially can lead to a shorter, faster labour.
Towards the end of your pregnancy, the more upright you are the better. It helps gravity push the baby down into a good position. The best position for your baby to be is lying with its head down close to your vagina with its back towards the front of your tummy or slightly towards the left hand side.
In the last few weeks of your pregnancy, you need to help gravity get your baby in the best position. So by being upright is the best way forward: leaning against a wall, sitting on a birthing ball, on your hands and knees is a really good position as well.
The best thing for birth is being in your optimum health: lots of green vegetables, breads, milk, cereal products are great because they’re all fortified with irons and folic acid which put you in the best state of health.
Exercising in your pregnancy should be something that you enjoy and is appropriate for the stage of pregnancy that you’re at. Labour’s a long, hard journey and the more prepared you are the easier it’s going to be.
Exercise and healthy eating will push you in the right direction for a nice, quick labour and a lovely healthy baby at the end of it.
