Research & Reviews: Journal of Medical and Health Sciences

Research & Reviews: Journal of Medical and Health Sciences

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ISSN: 2319-9865

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Importance of Physical Awareness in Pregnant Women

Sravya I*

Gokaraju Rangaraju Institute of Engineering and Technology, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

*Corresponding Author:
Sravya I
Gokaraju Rangaraju Institute of Engineering and Technology, Hyderabad, Telangana, India
Tel: 7794802681
E-mail: sravyai49@gmail.com

Received date: 15/07/2016; Accepted date: 22/07/2016; Published date: 29/07/2016

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Research & Reviews: Journal of Medical and Health Sciences

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Pregnancy is a stage which almost all the women’s have in their lifetime, it is probably considered as a peculiar or tough stage so women must be very conscious about her health and the changes which are all going to take place further. So to overcome the changes which are taking place in our body we need to be strong enough to face them by having good physical fitness.

Keywords

Pregnancy, Physical fitness, Exercises, Gynaecologists.

Introduction

Compared to Indian women most of the other parts of the women [1-5] include exercise as part of their healthy lifestyle.

Physical activity during pregnancy is important for the health of the mother and child and may reduce the risk of adverse maternal [6-12], fetal, and neonatal outcomes. At least 30 minutes of moderate activity is recommended by Obstetricians and Gynaecologists [13-16] for beneficial results.

There has been increasing research interest in interventions which promote physical activity during pregnancy few studies have yielded detailed insights into the views and experiences of overweight and obese pregnant women [17-25] themselves.

Healthy eating was often viewed as being of greater importance for the health of mother and baby than participation in physical activity. A commonly cited motivator for maintaining physical activity during pregnancy is an aid to reducing pregnancyrelated weight gain [26-30]. However, participants often described how they would wait until the postnatal period to try and lose weight. A wide range of barriers to physical activity during pregnancy [31-36] were highlighted including both internal (physical and psychological) and external (work, family, time and environmental).

Interventions to encourage recommended levels of physical activity in pregnancy should be accompanied by accessible and consistent information about the positive effects for mother and baby [37-40]. More research is required to examine how to overcome barriers to physical activity and to understand which interventions could be most effective for overweight/obese pregnant women [41,42]. Midwives should be encouraged to do more to promote activity in pregnancy [43-47].

The principle explanations behind not practicing were tiredness [48-52], feeling unwell, being excessively occupied and, in late pregnancy, activity being uncomfortable. The concern that certain sports might be hazardous to the pregnancy may also affect exercise levels [53-60]. Lack of time, lack of energy, concern for the baby and discomfort caused by activity has also been mentioned as barriers to exercise.

"Being pregnant perhaps is a good trigger, a good motivational point [61-63] to actually maybe take stock of what you are doing, or what you are not doing. And to start making choices which will continue after you're pregnant."

However, awareness of needing to adopt a healthy lifestyle during pregnancy was not always enough to initiate behavioural change [64-68]. "It's not news that you've got to eat well and not smoke and not drink and do activity in pregnancy. I think people are aware and choose to ignore it." Even they what to do and what not to do they opt for the things which are not healthy and might cause nausea [69,70] and dreadful affects.

Form the early stage of pregnancy there will be a lot of involvement of the family members regarding her diet even though she doesn’t like to eat or drink certain things they are forced to do so which might cause them to become obese [71-73] wherein they think of physical fitness to maintain their body structure.

Other internal barriers associated with physical activity in pregnancy included lack of self-confidence and motivation. Most of the women these days they work and they don’t find time to allocate to do any physical activity due to their daily routine life’s and work stress [74-78]. But they are trying to do some sort of physical activities at least for 10-15 min to overcome the stress which they are experiencing during their work.

In some cases women might be carrying their second child wherein they need to take care of their first child and family too [79,80], so they often cited barriers to physical activity which included lack of time, lack of suitable childcare, guilt, and wanting to spend time with their family [81].

Some women felt that there was a lack of suitable exercise [82-85] classes for pregnant women, due to their work timings they just cannot go and attend the classes.

Pregnant women, who think exercise is effective, do exercise during their pregnancy. Women who do exercise before pregnancy [86,87] also do exercise at their pregnancy. It is very important for the mother and baby to do physical activity before and during pregnancy time. Physical activity awareness should be increased in both pregnant women and women thinking of pregnancy. Primary reasons for exercising during pregnancy were for fitness and enjoyment. Although all women experienced worry about physical activity during pregnancy, most chose to continue to be active. The women opted to modify their physical activity or switch to a new form of exercise [88-90].

Superlatives are prevalent as women relate how they experienced their physical activities during pregnancy. They found it gave more pleasure, well-being, energy and light-heartedness to be physically active. It was described as enjoyable to use one's body [91], big though it was. It was regarded as a psychological boost to be able to be more active than one anticipated.

Yoga as an activity is perceived as pleasurable, relaxing and meditative for the women who tried it, and is described as a good way to cope with the distended pregnant body. Jogging is described as pleasant work out by most of the women. Strength training [92,93] is described as wonderful. Swimming was found to be the most satisfying form of exercise and was described as pleasant, fantastic and great during pregnancy, even though many of the women did not actually care for swimming prior to their pregnancy.

The pregnant women were happy to be active during pregnancy. Several pushed themselves to increase their heart rate, which was experienced as feeling good. Physical activity [94] was perceived to reduce weight gain and have a positive impact on aches in the back and lumbar region.

The majority of the women with a physically active lifestyle prior to pregnancy continue this lifestyle into pregnancy, as it is a habit and because of a great desire to maintain it. The challenge facing the woman is that the mind and the body react differently than before pregnancy [95,96]. Pregnancy is a new state in which discomfort, complications, the growing body or uneasiness with physical activity are perceived by the majority of the women as barriers to physical activity. The majority of women overcome these barriers through their own experience, role models, mirroring other pregnant women [97,98] and the counsel of experts (midwives/ physiotherapists) and continue their physical activity, simply at a lower level, through other activities or with other equipment, and derive much pleasure and physical well-being [99-101] from doing so.

References