Swimming during pregnancy

I am sure you should check with your Doctor, as I am sure there are a lot of variables that only someone familiar with your health and the baby's health would need to know in order to advise you. There was a woman in our group that swam with us last year up until about 2 weeks before she delivered. She and the baby are doing great, she rejoined the group about a month later, and I must admit she is in very fine shape. You would never have quessed she just had a child. I believe this was her third. She was not doing flip turns, or diving in obviously, but she did most of the workouts at a fair pace. I was surprised that she continued with the group as long as she did. Good luck to you and congratulations.

This sounds like a question for your ob/gyn. Speaking for myself, I were to become pregnant (not likely, since I'm a *man*), I would continue to work out on a reduced intensity level, and I would put competition on hold. This is not based on any specific medical insights, but just being prudent. Also -- Congratulations!

I swam through both of my pregnancies up until the day of delivery. I did flip turns, dives and interval sets. Your body will tell you how it feels and common sense will (should) guide you. Both of my children were and are healthy boys (they are 8 and 10 now). I highly recommend continuing to exercise through a pregnancy both for your sanity and your health! I participated in an exercise and pregnancy study during the second pregnancy. It was very interesting - they measured heartrate, temperature, etc. while I trained. They continue to follow my child to this day (the 8 year old) measuring his development as well. Dr. James Clapp was the investigator - he is well known in the exercise and pregnancy research world. He has done extensive research on pregnant runners and other weight bearing sports (swimming is not weight bearing). His research on swimmers is limited, however, I highly recommend that, if you are interested, that you look up his work if you want more detailed information on exercise and pregnancy in general. In a nutshell, there is data to support continuing to exercise throughout your pregnancy for lots of reasons. As has been said before - check with your OB before you launch your exercise program. I highly recommend getting back to the swimming after delivery - for the previously mentioned sanity/health reasons.

I'm currently pregnant for the third time, and whether to swim or not depends on not only your doctor and your health, but also how the pregnancy is going. Overall, if you're healthy and in shape, you can continue to swim until labor if you feel like it. The times you would not swim would be for competition or if you're not feeling well (besides the usual nausia, that is). For my first baby, I swam 4-5 times per week until a few days before he was born. For the second, I had to sit out for 2 months at the beginning and 2 months at the end because of some problems related to the pregnancy. For this one, I'm not too happy with my doctor because he took me off of my asthma medicine so I can't swim at all. I probably could just do a few drills, but the overhead with getting into the pool to NOT exert myself is not worth the time and effort for me. Instead I'm concentrating on other hobbies for a few months (like nagging my husband to make sure that he will be more than willing to watch the kids when I get to swim again). Anyways, that's my $0.02.

Hi, I have a three month old and swam until the day before my due date (four days before his birthday). I made people a little bit nervous when I announced that I was starting to dilate so I skipped the next work-out :) I basically did what felt comfortable with no diving, sprinting or hypoxic sets. This amounted to a gradual decrease in yardage (I had a pre-set maximum which I decreased throughout the pregnancy. I did this to avoid swimming to exhaustion). There was a more pronounced increase in intervals. I swam mostly free and some breaststroke. One arm fly made an appearance until the last month. I thought that backstroke was the most awkward. After awhile it is nearly impossible to contract your abs, so backstroke ends up as a sort of butt down "v" position. I actually find it harder to get to pool now that I have had the baby and have gone back to work. Have fun and good luck.

I swam thru my pregnancys with my doctor's blessing. The only things she said was no diving, no breath holding excercise and take it easy when you feel the need. I was advised to quit running. Swimming is about the only excercise a very pregnant women can do.

Oh, and Congratulations on the pregnancy. Its very exciting!

The OB/GYN told me not to let my heartrate get above 140. As soon as he left the room, the nurse-practitioner told me that I was used to training hard and I should just keep doing what I was doing, as long as I felt OK. I continued to swim up until delivery, and competed until I was about 6 months along. I even dived off the blocks. I think though that you should not rely on my experience, but talk to your own doctor. Your pregnancy could be completely different from mine.

Hi Kari,

Weird...don't know why that posted. All I did was hit the return button. What I was going to say was.... I swam during my pregnancy all the way up til 2 days before I delivered! It helped me tremendously with the backaches and blahs that occur in pregnancy. It helped me bounce back quicker afterwards too! I tried to keep my heart rate around 140-150 and just swam a lot of medium effort long swims. Nothing all out sprint. I did not compete in any meets because I love to race and knew I would push myself too hard. I also swam with my second child - not as much because taking care of my first child took a lot of my energy! Both my babies were very healthy! I would highly reccommend swimming throughout your pregnancy! :)