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Expert Q&A

	By April Underwood Fitness Consultant Playa del Rey, California

I am in my 26th week of pregnancy and was a fitness instructor for years and years up until a year or so before my pregnancy. I kept up with exercise so I am still fit. I feel fine laying on my back, but my husband cringes when he sees me doing a simple crunch. I think it is important to have strong abs to help with delivery. What is your philosophy?

In the general world of fitness, crunches are suggested for the purpose of keeping your abdominals strong for delivery, and it may help prevent back pain in the latter stages of pregnancy. However, you should not do them on your back after the 4th month of pregnancy. According to the ACOG guidelines, after the 4th month all exercises done while lying on your back should be discontinued. The weight of the baby puts undue pressure on the blood vessels that are responsible for your oxygen and ultimately the the baby's oxygen. Prolonged exercise on your back can lead to fetal distress syndrome, among other things.

All abdominal exercises should be done in a side lying position, and variations of kneeling on all fours or sitting upright in a chair. You should be very careful to exhale your belly in toward your spine as you round your spine into a crunch position, and tuck the pelvis under, moving your pubic bone forward.

My yoga instructors have passed on to me that crunches are of no use during pregnancy. You're just making the baby uncomfortable with each crunch, and going against the flow of allowing your abdominals to stretch and allow for the growth of the baby. Instead of counting on your abdominals for support during pregnancy, I was trained to do more back strengthening exercises, like cross crawls. Kneeling on your hands and knees, extend the opposite arm and leg out on the exhale, and other yoga based back strengtheners. According to the yoga philosophy, you're not pushing the baby out with your abdominals. It's about relaxing, using the breath, and various birthing positions conducive to labor. Basically, listening to your body, and easing into it rather than sitting up in bed and bending forward into a crunch position and pushing your brains out.

If you want more information on yoga based birthing techniques you can order a book called "Active Birth" or "Preparing for Birth with Yoga," by Janet Balaskas. The second one is usually easy to find in book stores.

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