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Exercise after pregnancy

Exercise can help your body to support itself again after pregnancy. It can also help improve your posture and general health and wellbeing.  

Having a baby changes your body.

Your:

  • tummy muscles have stretched
  • posture is different - your posture is the position you hold your body in when sitting or standing
  • pelvic floor muscles may be injured during the birth
  • body tissue is more stretchy and less supportive

You also may have a caesarean scar that needs time to heal.

Other benefits of exercise after pregnancy (postnatal exercise) include:

  • improved cardiovascular fitness
  • weight management
  • improved mood
  • reduced anxiety and depression
  • increased energy levels

Talk to your GP before starting exercise

Talk to your GP before starting exercising if you had:

  • caesarean section
  • a delay in your stitches healing
  • problems with your wound
  • infections in your womb or your wound
  • postpartum haemorrhage - a rare complication during birth

Read about exercise after having a caesarean

How to begin exercising after pregnancy

Returning to exercise after having a baby should be a gradual process. It's important to ease yourself back into exercise. Take your time.

You should follow an exercise plan and first focus on:

Read about what exercises you can do in the first 12 weeks.

Pelvic floor muscle exercises

Pelvic floor muscle exercises can help to strengthen the muscles that support your bowel, bladder and uterus.

This can help you if you have a:

  • leaky bladder (incontinence)
  • heavy feeling between your vagina and anus

Do your pelvic floor exercises daily:

  1. Slow pelvic floor muscle exercise
  2. Quick holds

Read step-by-step guides on how to do each pelvic floor exercise.

Until your pelvic floor muscles have strengthened through exercise, avoid:

  • running
  • jumping
  • lifting heavy weights

If you do high-intensity exercise with a weak pelvic floor, you could cause damage you cannot reverse.

Read about pelvic floor muscle exercises and how to do them

Posture

Exercises for your posture can help:

  • improve your physical strength after pregnancy
  • manage backpain

How to correct your posture after pregnancy

The correct posture to hold your body in is to:

  • soften your knees - make sure they are not locked.
  • straighten your pelvis underneath your rib cage.
  • straighten your back - do not allow your chest lean backwards

To correctly adjust your  tummy muscles to support your posture:

  1. Imagine a short ribbon attached to your pubic bone and your breast bone.
  2. Try and connect these imaginary ribbons so they meet in the middle of your tummy.
  3. Tuck your chin in slightly, making the back of your neck feel long.
  4. Pull your shoulders back and down your back - avoid tilting your upper trunk or chest backwards.
Correct posture: shoulder back, chin tucked in and back lengthened
Correct posture (left) with shoulder back, chin tucked in and back lengthened

Watch how to correct your posture

Correct posture during pregnancy

Sitting posture

Correct posture when sitting and feeding your baby
Correct sitting posture (right) when sitting and feeding your baby

Your sitting posture is also important.

A good sitting posture helps to:

  • support your shoulders when you're feeding your baby
  • support your back

To have a good sitting posture, make sure you:

  • sit on your sitz bones, not your bum - your sitz bones are two round bones at the bottom of your pelvis
  • support your lower back with a cushion to help you sit upright

Watch how to sit when holding your baby

DRAM (diastasis of the rectus abdomens muscle after pregnancy)

When to stop exercising

Get advice from a women's health physiotherapist if you experience any of the following:

Women's health physiotherapists are specially trained to help with these symptoms. Talk to your GP to get a referral.

Page last reviewed: 2 June 2020
Next review due: 2 June 2023

This project has received funding from the Government of Ireland’s Sláintecare Integration Fund 2019 under Grant Agreement Number 123.