Kegel exercises during pregnancy: description and recommendations

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

What is childbirth? This concept refers to the natural process of the birth of a child. Every woman is afraid of his approach. Is it possible to somehow facilitate and speed up labor activity? Doctors say yes! Doing Kegel exercises during pregnancy will help with this.

History of occurrence

The famous birthing exercise was developed by American obstetrician-gynecologist Arnold Kegel. He created a set of movements to strengthen the hip muscles. They have gained wide popularity all over the world, they were performed for the recovery of women, men and even children.

The famous gynecologist came to the conclusion that these exercises are great for expectant mothers. Rhythmic movements help strengthen the pelvic floor and vaginal muscles. Regular exercise will make it easier for the baby to move through the birth canal.

What do you need?

As mentioned earlier, it is necessary to do Kegel exercises during pregnancy forin order to reduce pain during childbirth and speed up this natural process. There are several more goals that require "working" on the hip muscles.

1. Recovery. It is believed that if you exercise regularly, then the reproductive functions of a person will be preserved for a long time.
2. Improve the menstrual cycle. Many gynecological patients claim that regular exercise has made it regular and less painful.
3. Improving the quality of intimate life. Exercise helps to strengthen the muscles of the vagina and perineum. Accordingly, sensitivity will increase during intimacy, and the partner will be pleasantly surprised.
4. Restoration of muscle tone and elasticity after childbirth.

The advantage of such workouts is that they can be performed in any position and in any place: at work, in public transport, at home and in any convenient place.

Key Benefits for Pregnancy

Experienced gynecologists recommend that their patients perform Kegel exercises during pregnancy to relieve pain. However, this is not their only purpose. Regular exercise will allow:

1. Reduce pain symptom in late pregnancy. The load on the uterus after the 28th week increases, and the muscles begin to stretch, respectively, the woman may feel unwell in the abdomen. Regular exercise can prevent it.
2. Strengthen the production of the "hormone of happiness", which affects the improvement of well-being andmood.
3. Speed up blood circulation. Regular exercise is an excellent preventive measure to prevent edema and blood stasis.
4. Improve bowel function.
5. Reduce stress on the spine.

It is worth noting that the stronger the muscles of the perineum in a woman before childbirth, the less likely it is to form tears during the passage of the child through the birth canal.

There are no shortcomings in such training. The benefits of them are huge, despite the ease of implementation.

How to find muscles?

After studying the description of Kegel exercises for pregnant women, you can understand that their essence lies in the impact on a specific muscle group. Before you start training, you need to know where they are located. Let's do this in a simple way:

• Wait for the moment when there is a clear urge to urinate.
• Try to prevent it.
• Feel which muscles are used to hold urination, they need to be trained.

Important: you can feel this area only if the buttocks, legs and hips are not tense. So, the muscles are defined, now we can talk about how to do Kegel exercises during pregnancy.

What do you need for training?

Surprisingly, in order to perform a Kegel exercise during pregnancy, you do not need free space and any additional attributes. It only takes a few minutes of free timeto focus on your feelings. For the first time, it is recommended to do the exercises at home in a relaxed atmosphere. Relaxing music can be turned on if desired. Once the skills are mastered, you can train at work, on public transport and in any other crowded place. No worries. No one will notice that the woman is currently working on strengthening the muscles.

When to start exercising?

Gynecologists do not set a framework for when you need to start mastering the principles of Kegel exercises during pregnancy. However, it is recommended to do this 1-3 months before the expected date of conception.

If the practice has not happened before, then you can start training during the period of bearing the baby, but you need to do this carefully, adhering to a few basic rules:

1. The total time to do Kegel exercises during pregnancy for the first time should not exceed 5 minutes.
2. It is recommended that you first train in a prone position, trying to relax as much as possible.
3. During exercise, it is worth controlling the force of compression - do not strain the vagina too much.
4. If a woman feels discomfort, then the training should be stopped. You can start training no earlier than after 3 days.

Often, expectant mothers cannot understand the essence of Kegel exercises during pregnancy. If this has arisen, then there are two ways out: try to hold urination, and then repeat thistraffic; insert a vaginal ball into the vagina and hold it for several minutes due to the muscles of the perineum.

Standard exercise

Standard Kegel exercise for women during pregnancy is performed in the supine position. It consists of several main steps:

1. Position required: head and back supported by pillow, buttocks slightly lower, legs slightly apart.
2. Next, you need to squeeze the muscles of the vagina and hold in this position for at least 10 seconds.
3. The crotch can be relaxed.
4. After 5-10 seconds, you need to repeat the exercise.

At first it is recommended to do 10 repetitions, then this number can be increased to 30-100 repetitions per day.

Usually, women master these skills already in the 3rd lesson. After this, the exercise can be performed in a sitting position and lying down.

Important: It is recommended to empty the intestines and bladder before training.

Rhythmic repetitions

There is another version of the Kegel exercise. The starting position is similar - lying down, with your knees apart. It is required to squeeze and unclench the muscles of the vagina at a fast pace for 30 seconds. Then you can take a break of 10-20 seconds and do 3 more similar repetitions.

Attention! During training, a woman should feel a slight tension in the vaginal area. A negative symptom is cramping pain and discharge.

As soon as the expectant mother managed to master thesemovements, it can complicate the task. This requires alternately squeezing the muscles of the vagina in the direction from the bottom up and vice versa. It should feel like an elevator moving up and down.

When not to exercise?

Kegel exercise at first glance seems simple and harmless. But still, a number of factors can be distinguished, in the presence of which it is worth refusing to conduct training. These include:

• Diseases associated with the work of the heart and kidneys.
• Acute inflammatory processes, especially if accompanied by fever.
• Bleeding.
• Threatened miscarriage.
• Severe or late toxicosis.

Even if there are no contraindications, the expectant mother should exercise with the utmost care. In most cases, this applies to those gynecological patients who have already had miscarriages.

Training should also be rescheduled if you feel unwell. You should resume classes only after the body has fully recovered.

Expert reviews

On the Internet, you can often find reviews about the Kegel exercise during pregnancy. Obstetrician-gynecologists assure that such physical activity perfectly trains the body before childbirth. They recommend starting classes before pregnancy or in the early stages of bearing a baby so that the muscles of the vagina have time to get stronger before the end of the third trimester. The intensity of training should be reduced or stopped altogether after the 36th week of pregnancy. Such activities canprovoke uterine contractions, and consequently, premature birth.

Specialists assure that the exercises will be effective only if they are performed regularly. During classes, you should not use the muscles of the back, buttocks, abdomen and legs. Doctors recommend during training to control breathing: inhale at the moment of tension and exhale when relaxing. It is worth noting that after the 18th week of pregnancy, it is recommended to perform exercises in a sitting and standing position to reduce the load on the spine.

Mom Reviews

On women's forums, you can find a lot of feedback from young mothers who trained using the Kegel method during pregnancy. Almost all of them claim that such simple movements helped not only facilitate childbirth, but also noticeably brighten up intimate life with a partner. Ladies also praise the ease of exercise and the fact that it can be done in any position.

There are also negative reviews. They are mainly due to the fact that you have to allocate free time for training and that it is not immediately possible to find the right muscles. Some women write about the ineffectiveness of this method, but most likely this is due to incorrect or irregular training.

Conclusion

Kegel exercise is the most effective way to reduce labor pain. However, in order for the birth of a child to happen quickly and easily, you also need to take care of proper nutrition, moderate physical activity, a he althy lifestyle, it is also important to follow all the recommendations.doctor.