Healthy Pregnancy: 7 Reasons Why Walking Everyday is Beneficial For Moms-to-be

Walking is a great way to stay active and maintain overall health during pregnancy.

Exercise is essential during pregnancy. However, there are some precautions that pregnant women should take while exercising because they should not be doing things that can be dangerous to them and their baby. It is important for pregnant moms to avoid sports or heavy weightlifting or a very strenuous exercise. So, in the first three months of pregnancy, avoid anti-natal yoga. The only exercise that women can do in their early pregnancy is walking. Walking is a great way to stay active and maintain overall health because it’s like a low impact aerobic exercise. Walking can’t strain your body and you can easily do it in your third trimester. As per Dr Astha Dayal, Lead Consultant – Obstetrics & Gynaecology at CK Birla Hospital, Gurugram ”While exercising in pregnancy there is a test that we follow which is called the talk test. So, when a woman is exercising, she should be able to talk and not get breathless, if the mom-to-be feels so then she should stop. So, you can walk to a level with which you are comfortable.” Walking has a lot of other benefits too, some are listed below.

7 Reasons Why Walking is Beneficial During Pregnancy

1. One, it is going to give you a cardiovascular exercise, so it improves your overall health.
2. Walking improves your stamina and if you stay active throughout pregnancy, it helps with a normal delivery. Besides this, it will also help you control your weight gain and especially for women who have gestational diabetes, in which we do not want them to gain too much weight, we tell them to go for a walk after every meal so that you burn the calories as well.
3. ​It helps in food digestion and prevents swelling as well as bloating, which happens after eating.
4. ​Walking prevents constipation. So, it helps in the bowel movement also because constipation is a very common problem in pregnancy, so the food movement downwards is improved when you walk a little.
5. Exercise and walking are also mood elevators, so it helps improve your mood, it helps release the happy hormones and you feel more positive during pregnancy, and it reduces your stress and anxiety.
6. It also prepares your body for labor. So people who continuously walk throughout their pregnancy have a better chance of a normal delivery. And besides that, your body, the muscles get prepared for going through labor, so it strengthens your pelvic muscles and prepares your body for the delivery.
7. When you perform any exercise in pregnancy, you must do it under supervision. So, walking also you should do after taking permission from your doctor. There are certain conditions in which we tell you not to do a certain exercise but, in most cases, walking is the best and the most allowable exercise that you can do during pregnancy.

(Inputs: Dr Astha Dayal, Lead Consultant – Obstetrics & Gynaecology, CK Birla Hospital, Gurugram)