Can Lifting During Pregnancy Harm Your Baby?

The most common fear pregnant women have when they come to me is the fear of harming their baby if they lift. Or get their heart rate above a certain point, run, or do anything physical really.

Which makes sense, because absolutely no one would want to do anything that may potentially harm their precious new one!

So, I wanted to dedicate a whole blog post, and provide scientific evidence, to totally irradiate these fears.

To put it bluntly…

Working out while pregnant does NOT harm your baby.

In fact, exercise not only benefits both you as the mom and your baby while still in utero, but it also has benefits that extend all the way into childhood and adulthood.

All of the facts below are from the scientific article that you can read here .

Here are some things you should know about the impact of exercise on your baby (now and long term):

1. The in utero environment that is created from your health choices directly influences fetal organ development.

In simpler terms, the healthier the choices you make the better environment you’re providing for your child. And a better environment during the key stages of your babies internal and external development is absolutely crucial in the overall health of your little babe!

2. Exercise during pregnancy is associated with an increased incidence of full-term delivery.

Self-explanatory, but so important. Full-term babies are able to fully develop in utero, and are therefore at a decreased risk of health issues once born. The fact that exercising during pregnancy can actually help babies reach full term is amazing.

3. Birth weight, length, head circumference and body composition is more normal/favorable when the mother exercises during pregnancy.

Normalization of these birth measures is crucial since babies both too small or too large on the spectrum are at higher health risks during infancy.

4. Risk of chronic disease for both the mother and baby are decreased when the mother exercises during pregnancy.

Not only is working out while pregnant not selfish (was called that one too many times on social media – especially on this post), but it is actually giving your unborn child the best odds of a healthy life! In babies whose mothers exercised during pregnancy, they found the following on average:

• lower resting heart rate
• increased heart rate variability
• decreased cardiovascular disease occurrences

That’s pretty incredible.

Feeling more at ease?

The article goes into depth on these topics (and more) so I highly encourage you to read in your spare time!

Now that you know that exercising during pregnancy is not only not harmful, but incredible beneficial, it’s time to get lifting!

If you want to take all the fear and guesswork out of your pregnancy workouts then just subscribe to my FIGR:Pregnancy workout program! You’ll get pregnancy-specific strength and interval workouts to not just help you stay healthy, but to also help your little babe thrive before they’re even born.

I got you,

Katelyn