Running the gauntlet: Mother-to-be Jenny Wright
Hello Friends!
At first I thought the words were aimed at someone else.
‘Selfish cow,’ said the young woman heading towards me and pushing a pram.
Then I realised there was no one else around us in beautiful Roundhay Park, Leeds, where I was jogging that afternoon. She was talking to me, but surely I’d misheard.
‘You should be ashamed of yourself,’ she bellowed, ‘putting your own vanity before your unborn baby.’
I was too stunned to say anything – I simply ran a little faster to get away from her.
This happened in January, and at the time I was six months pregnant. I’ve always loved running and I do it almost every day.
With the encouragement of my GP, I had continued to exercise for the benefit of my own health and that of my unborn child.
That encounter in the park left me in tears.
The ironic thing was that the other woman was smoking a cigarette as she pushed her own child along.
I’d never do anything to harm my baby – in fact I chose to maintain my love of exercise to do just the opposite.
Astonishingly, though, this woman was far from alone in her scorn.
Since my bump became obvious at about four-and-a-half months, countless people have been unable to hide their incredulity at the sight of me jogging – I stopped only last week, at 39 weeks, when it became uncomfortable.
‘How could you be so reckless with your baby’s life?’ muttered another woman – my critics were overwhelmingly female.
My experience shows that despite Government advice for pregnant women to exercise, doing so is still a social taboo.
Perhaps my detractors are unaware that as many as half of all mothers-to-be are thought to be dangerously overweight or obese.
In January 2010, experts at the National Obesity Forum called on the Government to introduce regular weigh-ins for all women throughout pregnancy in an attempt to tackle the crisis.
At least 30 minutes a day of a moderately intensive activity such as swimming, brisk walking or strength-conditioning is strongly recommended
Obesity in pregnancy can lead to serious problems including foetal abnormalities, pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes and even death of the mother, or the baby through stillbirth.
An overweight woman is also more likely to require a caesarean because either she or the baby is too big.
Little wonder, then, that NHS guidelines published in July 2010 state that a pregnant woman must be advised on diet and exercise at the earliest opportunity.
The advice highlights that eating for two is a dangerous myth – no extra calories are needed until the third trimester, and even then only a further 200 a day are recommended.
In an average healthy pregnancy, only between 5 lb and 8 lb of weight gained should be body fat – the rest is baby, placenta, amniotic fluids and water retention.
And at least 30 minutes a day of a moderately intensive activity such as swimming, brisk walking or strength-conditioning is strongly recommended, safe and beneficial.
The guidelines also stipulate that if a woman exercised regularly before pregnancy – as I did – she should be able to continue with her regime with no adverse effects.
I play hockey, go for five-mile runs and use weights for strength-training – I try to do something active every day.
So I was relieved when, having confirmed I was five weeks pregnant, my GP reassured me that as long as I had no complications and felt well, I should continue with all of my favoured exercises other than hockey.
Like any contact sport, hockey carries a risk of getting knocked in the stomach.
My doctor explained that exercise helps to strengthen the baby’s heart as it increases blood flow. It also helps prepare the body for labour, and if you’re fit while pregnant, you’re likely to have fewer complications at birth, plus a speedier delivery and recovery.
My husband Phill, 32, is managing director of a company that trains fitness professionals, and he was completely comfortable with my choice.
So it was a huge shock when people began to stop and stare at me blatantly as I ran in the park.
Even colleagues were aghast that I had no intention of giving up my fitness regime and asked rhetorical questions such as: ‘Shouldn’t you stop exercising and put your feet up instead?’
At seven months pregnant, I was exercising in a gym one morning while away from home with my job – I’m a manager for the Highways Agency – when an instructor advised me that ‘some of our members aren’t comfortable watching you lift weights while pregnant’.
Yet again, my critics were respectable individuals just like me, which made their comments all the more hurtful.
I gave him short shrift. After all, had I been picking up and carrying a toddler while pregnant – the average weight of a two-year-old is 2st – nobody would have questioned it.
Sadly, I know many other pregnant women who have also suffered verbal abuse for exercising.
One continued to host so-called Buggy Fit classes in a park while pregnant and was distraught when onlookers commented that she was selfish for doing so and didn’t deserve to be having a child.
Yet exercising during pregnancy has brought huge health benefits to me.
While many pregnant women suffer back problems, particularly during the third trimester when their bump is heaviest, I haven’t had the slightest ache.
I’ve not experienced any loss of balance – again common in pregnancy – nor swollen legs or ankles. I don’t even have any stretch marks.
I’m now writing an exercise programme specifically for pregnant women who have always been active, as there’s very little information out there about anything other than gentle yoga and Pilates.
Those are fine if you’ve never exercised, but they’re not very inspiring for fitness devotees like me.
You can bet that if I had been sitting in the pretty tearooms in Roundhay Park that day in January stuffing my face with cream cakes, the same woman who ranted at me for exercising would have cooed: ‘Ah, eating for two, how lovely!’
It’s time society changed this naive and dangerous view and realised that exercise and weight-management are hugely important for the sake of the mother and her unborn child.
Those of us who do take care of ourselves should be applauded, not berated.
Should pregnant women put their feet up or continue exercising? Tell us your view at www.cheskadiva.blogspot.com
Culled from The Daily Mail UK.
xoxo
Simply Cheska...
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