We know that cardiovascular fitness can help you clear away some of that first-trimester fog and supply you with a regular hit of happiness, thanks to the endorphins released during heart-pounding activities. We know that labor, the wide-awake kind, is hard work (with or without drugs), but we also know that the more fit your heart is, the more energy and endurance you’ll have for the event.
We even know why cardiovascular fitness helps during labor. A strong heart is better able to supply your hardworking muscles with freshly oxygenated blood, which keeps them primed for action. Scientific gobbledygook aside, perhaps the most important thing we know is this: Real women have testified to the fact that being fit helped them tolerate labor pain better and gave them the stamina to tough it out-the pain, the pushing, the whole enchilada.
That said, you need to know how to get fit (or stay fit, if you’re already there). What’s the best way to train your heart for the Great labor Challenge? That’s a multiple choice question, because, well, you have multiple choices. There is no single prescription, especially when it comes to cardiovascular exercise, and for good reason: Everyone’s starting from a different place. If you’ve never exercised before, you can’t play by the same rules as the woman who lives to sweat. And she won’t follow exactly the same program as your average moderately active Jane.
The whole situation is complicated by the fact that the first trimester of pregnancy is a confusing time, sports-wise. Aside from a certain voluptuousness, you probably don’t look pregnant yet, and you’re certainly not encumbered by the trademark belly that will soon make complete strangers smile knowingly at you on the street. Still, your body is different, and you definitely feel pregnant. And you probably feel something else, too: cautious. Chalk that emotion up to a newly budding maternal instinct, or maybe simple self-preservation. Either way, that little voice that’s asking “What is my body capable of doing? is one you should pay attention to.
