Pregnancy

Part 1 – Pregnancy

Pregnant with Hunor (Nr. 2) – Nov 2007

Well then, let’s discuss a typically girly subject. I get a lot of questions about how one can maintain workout, running while being pregnant, or after a pregnancy. When can we start working out, running again after pregnancy, and at what intensity do we do it during and after. My article series will consist of the following three blogposts:

Before pregnancy and pregnancy
Giving birth, nursing and right after pregnancy
Me-time in the first two years

First, I would like to underline the fact, that I am not a GP. However, I have successfully given birth to three healthy children, and what I can do, is to tell my personal story. Naturally I am not in position to tell anyone how to do it, and it is quite possible that I was often too much of a daredevil, or even irresponsible. It is also possible, that it just looks and feels like I am just a bit too instinctive. Just look at it as a story, that some of you have requested. However, believe me when I say it, that it was the most natural feeling in my life, these 5 years, when I was either pregnant, giving birth, or nursing. This is going to be a raw feature, as I will keep the emotional parts private: giving birth, nursing and my personal contact and feelings to my children are intimate parts of my life, that every one of us experiences in different ways, everyone with their own child, in their own way. What I can add to it, and what you are actually interested in, is not surprisingly the physical changes, how to live and deal with that. In the third part however I will talk about the emotional part, how did I accept my own need for “me-time” in this modern world, in which it is almost a sin to care about other than your child until nursery.

The facts:

Just before my first pregnancy in May 2005.

I gave birth to 3 children in 3,5 years, and the first one at the age of 27.
Therefore, I was either pregnant, giving birth, or nursing for 5 years in a row.
When I fell pregnant for the first time, I was still smoking, and for the first 5 weeks of the pregnancy as well, as I did not know that I was pregnant.
Before my first pregnancy, I was working out, mostly general work out sessions, and aerobics, but not as seriously as now.
By my second and third pregnancy, running was definitely an important part of my life.
All my pregnancies were without complication.
All three labors were without complication.
I gave birth the natural way all three times.
All my children were born with healthy numbers: 3300gr. 3400gr. and 3580gr.
I nursed all my children for 10 months, and for 6 month they only had breast-milk.
Before my first child I had silicone implants put in my breast. It did not affect breastfeeding at all.
After my third child, I had surgery to change the implants.

My posy during all my pregnancies:

This is not an illness but a condition.

With Hanga in my belly (31st week) – 31th Dec 2005 – New Years Eve

Basically, I believe, that a healthy woman can take the same kind of pressure during pregnancy, as before giving birth. I always take the natural peoples of the world, and the women/mothers of past times working in the fields as reference, when asked this question. They could take it. In the world of animals, there is also no species, that retires when pregnant. Life goes on, literally, what does not kill us, does not hurt us. Our bodies will give the sign if anything is wrong.

I did not read any pregnancy literature, or any of the kind.

Personally I believe, that we overreact and mystify motherhood these days.

We are afraid of giving birth, we are afraid of being pregnant, if we will be able to breast feed etc. I am convinced, that if we did not overreact and would just let it be in all it’s natural ways, there would be much less problems of the issue in the civilized world. I think, that we make too much of an issue, and in the end by that, we are creating the problems ourselves:

I was therefore not afraid of giving birth, naturally some several millions of women had survived it. The female body is created to get on with it, therefore it is endurable.
I did not ask for epidurals, although I am not a matriarch. I am the same way with sports: simply I am interested in, how much my body can take. I want to feel, and know how I was created. Therefore I came out stronger from the hospital, feeling like a winner.
Giving birth hurts alright, however, you can survive it, so for me it was not a question of comfort.

I have no experience of how to save ourselves before childbirth. Two out of three pregnancies came as a surprise, thus I had no time to prepare before it. So I was living my life just as before. However, even before the one that I consciously prepared for, I was not doing anything different from the others.

Eating and doing workout during pregnancy:

with Huba in my belly (36th week) – 2009. July

Apart from the abdominal exercise, I was doing practically the same intensity, that is 4-5 times a week at the gym.
During my first pregnancy I was not running yet, I only did workout, and sessions at the gym: shoulders, back, arms, gluteus and cardio.

IMPORTATNT – We should not try a new sport during pregnancy.

During my second and third pregnancies, I was running until the 5^th After that due to the change of the center of gravity, it was not comfortable anymore. However, I do know women, who could continue until almost the last weeks of their pregnancies. I did do workout and the gym until the last day.
However if I had not done any sports before pregnancy, I would have started with specified yoga probably.
My diet did not change. I was as usual, I did not want more nor less. I didn’t want any specific food, and I did not increase my daily intake. I have to admit, that I was not eating much before, therefore I did not eat much during either: no pasta, no bread, no potatoes, hardly any sweets – just the usual.
By the end of my pregnancies I was up by an average of 7-8 kg. After childbirth some 4.5kg disappeared at once, and left was the rest, which was mainly divided by water and fat.
I did not have a big issue with water retention during any of my pregnancies. It is probably down to genetics, but I am sure my workout also played a smaller role in it.