Swimming when pregnant is safe and can help keep you in shape, relaxed and feeling good as your bump grows. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.
It offers a relatively weightless environment. Water can support up to 90% of your body’s weight, which means swimming when pregnant can offer you relief for half an hour!
A lot of women also find that swimming helps to ease swelling in their legs and feet, or even relieve sciatic pain because it’s such a great way to get the circulation going.
Also, evidence suggests that swimming can encourage your baby to get into the best position for labour. It is also great for stress busting.
Try to swim for 30 minutes on most, if not all, days of the week. If you swam regularly before pregnancy, you should be able to continue without much modification. Just be sure you know the warning signs to slow down or stop exercising. If you ever feel light-headed, dizzy, breathless, notice an irregular heartbeat, experience lower abdominal pain or uterine contractions, bleed vaginally or lose fluids you should leave the water immediately and seek expert advice.
If you didn’t exercise at all before pregnancy, it’s probably fine for you to swim, but check with your doctor or midwife first. If it’s okay, start slowly, stretch well to warm up and cool down, and be careful not to overexert yourself.
In early pregnancy stage, all kinds of stokes are safe and suitable; however, breaststroke is more suitable in late pregnancy as it maintains optimal posture and promotes the strength of chest and back muscles.
Don’t forget to drink water — you can get dehydrated even in the pool. And don´t forget to eat well, carbohydrates works great 2 hours before your swimming class.
Sometime we organize special workouts for the pregnant women, please, check it here. If we have nothing scheduled right now you can always have one private session where the coach will provide you with knowledge of how to perform a fun, challenging and yet safe pregnancy swimming workout.