Maternal Fitness: Preparing for a Healthy Pregnancy, an Easier Labor, and a Quick RecoveryGet Your Body Ready for the Marathon of Labor! If you're newly pregnant, you're probably watching your diet carefully, getting plenty of rest, and preparing for the arrival of your new baby. You're also thinking about the big day itself and what the experience of labor will be like. Even if you're following a regular fitness program, you'll want to do everything you can to strengthen and prepare your body for the rigors of labor. Maternal Fitness features clearly illustrated exercises that focus specifically on the muscle groups you'll use throughout labor, especially the transverse abdominals -- the stomach muscles that play a critical role during delivery. A powerful set of transverse abs can speed labor and delivery and make for a quick recovery. By learning how to strengthen your abdominals and relax your pelvic floor muscles, you'll be able to push more effectively. While the Maternal Fitness program is designed specifically for the big moment, it also has other benefits, from minimizing backache and fatigue to giving you a welcome head start on getting back into shape after childbirth. Developed by a professional trainer who is also a registered nurse and childbirth educator, the Maternal Fitness program is safe for you and your baby and easy to do. Once learned, it can be incorporated into any workout. |
Common terms and phrases
abdominal muscles aerobic exercise baby back-lying BAKS Basics BAKS EXERCISE belly breath belly button Belly Dancing birth bring the transverse bring your belly buttocks Chapter chest muscles cles clients count out loud diastasis Dyna-Band elbows elevator episiotomy exhale Expand the belly expand your belly feel feet fifth floor fifth to sixth Figure flexed getting going hand Here's Hold the transverse hold your breath inner thigh keep kegel exercises kegels lengthening linea alba lower back lying marathon of labor Maternal Fitness routine move movement nine months obstetrician PC muscle pelvic floor muscles pelvic tilt pelvis forward placenta preg pregnancy protein pull recti rectus abdominis Remember shortening shoulders side side-lying spine squatting starting position straight strengthen stretch supine position take a belly trans transverse at fifth transverse exercises transverse muscle Transversus Abdominis trimester Tupler Technique upper back upper body uterus vagina Valsalva maneuver weight