Pregnancy

As research continues to support regular exercise in low risk, healthy pregnancies, the number of pregnant women engaging in moderate intensity exercise remains below recommended levels for health benefits. Current guidelines recommend that healthy pregnant and postpartum women, perform at...

This question is asked frequently by women who are pregnant and fear doing harm to themselves or their baby. Many women enjoy running and find the thought of having to stop — for pregnancy, injury or other reasons — distressful to consider....

It’s important for coaches working with pregnant and postpartum women to understand the birthing process and the implications it may have on a client’s body and her return to exercise, as well as the emotional and psychological impact of the...

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a common medical complication of pregnancy when your body cannot cope with the extra demand for insulin production. The resultant is persistent levels of high blood glucose levels (BGL) in the body. Although elevated BGL...

If any of your clients has ever given birth — and considering that 85 percent of women do, there’s a very strong likelihood that many among your clients have — you should educate yourself about pelvic organ prolapse. Pelvic organ...

A woman’s body goes through significant physiological and psychological changes during pregnancy, and labor and delivery. As a health and fitness professional, you have a duty to understand: How your client’s body changes during pregnancy Any potential birth trauma they...

Whether it’s your first child or you’re a seasoned mother, the days, weeks and months following the birth of a baby can feel like a rollercoaster for many women. While you may be impatient — or not! — to return...

Advice and guidelines on postpartum weight loss can be extremely confusing, and there is one good reason for this: Everybody is different! This means that women’s experience of pregnancy and postpartum will also differ, from the way each pregnancy carries...

Diastasis recti abdominis (DRA) is one of the more notable changes that takes place during pregnancy. To accommodate the growing baby, the abdomen expands, stretching the skin, muscles, and connective tissue (including the linea alba). As the abdomen expands in...