Should You Exercise While Pregnant?

It is one of the most common questions medical experts are asked.  It comes up in the office and even in social settings.  The question is, "Should you exercise while you are pregnant?"  The answer is yes.  Exercise and proper conditioning can help with the labor and certainly improve your overall blood supply to the baby.  In addition, stretching, flexibility, and exercise are quite helpful and can help at the time of delivery.  But, there is a longer answer we need to stress.  Women who are pregnant need to realize they should not expect to do more than when they were not pregnant.  That's a very important point.  

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Research on Oxytocin and Delivering Babies

There's an interesting report in the New England Journal of Medicine.  Actually, the research was done at Tulane and the University of North Carolina.  They worked together.  What they found is teaching hospital staff in Uruguay and Argentina might have better ways to deliver babies by reducing the chances of the new mom experiencing significant blood loss and undergoing an episiotomy.  Here's what happened.  The researchers worked with hospital staff providing workshops and one on one training in order to promote oxytocin use during labor and discourage episiotomies.  An episiotomy is an incision in the mother to aid the baby's exit.  After the intervention finished, even a year later, oxytocin use during labor was up 2% to 84% and episiotomies were down 41% to 30%; gains that were not seen at hospitals that did not have those interventions.  Chances of blood loss decreased by 45% to 70%.

For more information, please go to www.123MyMD.com.