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Nine Months of Strength

Your Guide to a Healthy Baby

By Teri Brown

Any woman who has given birth understands the physical demands of the event. It is a long, exhausting and demanding exercise in physical endurance. But what if you prepared for the blessed event by training for it as you would for a marathon, with an understanding of the physical demands it would take on your body? How would that improve your delivery?

Patti Brown, a mother of four from Beachwood, N.J., believes her prenatal preparations helped her have all four births without pain medication, something she and her husband were hoping for.

"We did prenatal exercises regularly," says Brown. "My husband did them with me every night. Not only did we do breathing, but [we did] stretching of the arms, abs and legs and, best of all, squats! My husband hated these but in the end could squat longer than me!"

Brown even did abdomen strengthening exercises.

"The last pregnancy I had a personal coach give us a great refresher," says Brown. "She taught me these exercises that worked on the abs that helped with pushing. They were helpful. You pulled your abs in towards your spine and sort-of pulsed them very gently. The baby loved them. I felt like she was doing them with me!"

Karen Bridson, author of the book Nine Months Strong: Shaping Up for Labor and Delivery and the Toughest Physical Day of Your Life (Lifeline Press, 2004), believes the physical, emotional and mental benefits of training for your delivery day are almost immeasurable.

"For one thing, training for delivery can be instrumental in getting you to delivery day healthy," says Bridson, who is an American Council on Exercise certified personal trainer and a Baby and Me Fitness certified pre and postnatal fitness instructor. "There are so many things that can go wrong in a pregnancy; getting physically fit can minimize those risks."

Some of the other benefits of training for delivery include increased physical endurance, more control over your pelvic floor for the pushing stage of the delivery and a faster recovery. Another benefit is an increased sense of strength.

Want to see more?

• The Right Touch: Massage for Prenatal Health and Comfort
• 9 Tips for a Fit Pregnancy: A Guide to Nine Months of Healthful Habits
• Quit Smoking: Add to Baby's Birthweight
• Talk about it!