Exercise after Childbirth

Childbirth is a taxing process, it can leave a woman feeling completely exhausted. And unfortunately this feeling doesn’t go away after one night. If you have recently given birth incorporating an exercise regimen into your daily life will help your body get back to the shape you were in before pregnancy and help you heal from the enormous physical strain of childbirth.

After getting clearance from your doctor at a post childbirth appointment usually a 6 week check up, start a simple walking program. Walking is wonderful exercise. Get out of the house walk around your block. Depending on the time of year you may have to make do with doing some walking just around the house. Babies love to be held and strolled around so think of all those late night crying sessions as a way for you to walk for exercise.

Stop when you are tired. Rest whenever the baby rests. Rest is an important component for healing. Take it easy at first. Your level of exercise will not be the same as before your pregnancy. Passive sit ups may be a great place to start. Passive sit ups will help to flatten your tummy. Whenever you are sitting or driving just pull your stomach muscles in, hold, then let out. Very easy on you and can be done anywhere.

Your pelvic floor muscles went through a great strain during the childbirth process. These muscles are weakened during the birth process and can cause you to leak urine when you jump, cough or sneeze. To help tone those back up do some pelvic floor exercises. To exercise your pelvic floor muscles tighten the muscles you would use to keep yourself from urinating. A good way to discover how this feels is to stop your stream of urine when you are going. Once you get a feel for tightening up these muscles you can exercise them anywhere just tighten, hold, and relax while breathing normally. This will increase the strength of these muscles, it may take some time.

If you feel any pain stop what you are doing and let your doctor know. And remember don’t fight fatigue, sleep when you can. Don’t get discouraged just go look at the beautiful little life you have created, and your physical exhaustion and strain is well worth it. You will get your body back and it is quite possible to be in better shape than you have ever been.

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HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our blood alcohol, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years. Our team of health professionals, and researchers use peer reviewed studies as source elements in our articles. Our high quality content has been featured in a number of leading websites, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Live Strong, GQ, and many more.

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Written by HealthStatus Team
Medical Writer & Editor

HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our blood alcohol, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years. Our team of health professionals, and researchers use peer reviewed studies as source elements in our articles. Our high quality content has been featured in a number of leading websites, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Live Strong, GQ, and many more.

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