I've heard many new mums sigh: "When can I finally start my sports programme again?" And they don't mean postnatal exercises or recovery exercises, but "real" sport. Women often want to continue doing what they enjoyed before the birth or pregnancy. And the desire to get physically "back in shape" also often plays a role. However, not all sports are equally suitable for "mum fitness".
Of course: it's simply fun to be active and good for the soul! The fact that it also improves the health of body and mind is of course also great. At the same time, many mums want to fight off the one or two kilos left over from pregnancy. What's more, sport gives most mums some well-deserved me-time.
But despite all the motivation to finally start exercising again without a baby bump - take it easy, dear mums, and realise once again: your body has achieved great things with the pregnancy and birth of your child, a real peak performance! So give it enough time now to recover. According to an old rule of thumb: nine months for pregnancy, nine months for regeneration. There's a lot to it! If you exercise too early or too intensively after the birth, you will do yourself little good and may actually have the opposite effect (more on this below).
When can you start doing sport again after giving birth?
In the postpartum period, the focus is on getting to know each other, but very importantly: also on healing the birth injury and taking it easy. After all, it's not for nothing that they say weeksbed, but it can also be the sofa under a cosy blanket. During this time, your midwife will show you a few exercises for postnatal gymnastics that you can use to gently support the involution of your uterus. During this postpartum period, exercise will do more harm than good. This is because overstretched and injured muscles must first form and heal before they can be exercised again.
Around six to eight weeks after a vaginal birth, i.e. at the end of the postpartum period, mothers should talk to their Postnatal course begin. Above all, the body, which is heavily stressed by pregnancy and childbirth Pelvic floor needs to be gently strengthened again. The same applies to your abdominal muscles.
Once you have completed the postnatal course, you can start exercising again to continue building up your fitness. Ideally, you should continue doing the exercises from the postnatal course anyway. Because they are the ideal companion for any other sport. However, when you can resume your usual type of sport also depends on the course of your labour and your personal healing process. Were there any (severe) birth injuries? Was it a vaginal birth or a Caesarean section? Is there possibly a Rectus diastasis before? Depending on the answer, some women will need more time before they can start exercising again, while others can start earlier. Individual basic fitness also plays a role here. When you can start doing sports again after the birth also depends on the sporting activity. You can start swimming early on, for example, but you should wait with running and jumping sports until the pelvic floor and rectus diastasis have finally healed. This takes time. You should give your body nine to twelve months before you start running again.
In any case, you can still do a lot for yourself and integrate exercise into your everyday life to slowly get your fitness back on track. This means you can also go for a walk, get on your bike instead of the car or take the stairs instead of the lift. The important thing is that you listen carefully to your body's signals. If it tells you through pain or other complaints that it is still too much, you should definitely take this seriously and shift down a gear accordingly.
And please don't compare yourselves with other women. Just because your neighbour is back on the cross trainer three months after giving birth doesn't mean it's suitable for you. It's best to discuss with your midwife or doctor when and to what extent exercise is suitable for you again. Then you'll be on the safe side.
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When can you start exercising after a caesarean section?
With a caesarean section, you have undergone what is known as major abdominal surgery. The female body needs correspondingly more time to recover. After all, all the severed layers of tissue first have to grow back together - and there are many more of them than the small scar might suggest. This is why mothers should wait a little longer after a caesarean section before starting their postnatal course. Women who have had a caesarean section should not start their postnatal course until 12 weeks after the birth.
They can also start exercising again carefully after their postnatal recovery without overexerting themselves. For mothers who have had a caesarean section, it is particularly important to get the go-ahead for sporting activities from the gynaecologist. In any case, the following also applies here: listen to your body's signals and respect its limits.
Which sports are suitable after the birth?
With consideration for the pelvic floor, mums should start with sports that do not put too much strain on the pelvic floor. That's why, for example, the jogging that you used to do in the past should wait a little longer. Jogging is one of the so-called high-impact sports, as are tennis, rope skipping, climbing or ball sports such as handball or football. All of these sports involve anaerobic training, which pushes the heart rate up and is intended to increase performance. It is better to wait until around twelve months after the birth to do this.
Walking or Nordic walking are better suited as pelvic floor-friendly sports after the birth than running/jogging. Swimming, yoga, Pilates and gymnastics, for example, are also ideal for the beginning, as are sessions on the stepper. However, despite all sporting activities, it is very important not to train your pelvic floor yet. straight abdominal muscles. This is especially true if the gap between the abdominal muscles caused by the pregnancy has not yet closed. Please also read the article on Rectus diastasis on my blog.
Numerous sports and fitness courses are also specially tailored to the needs of mothers. The offer ranges from mum yoga/pilates to buggy fit and kanga training. In the latter, the baby is included as a "training weight". So have a look around to see what is on offer in your area. Many women are happy to do something for their fitness in the company of other mums. Of course, you can also take advantage of online programmes.
What can happen if you exercise too much after giving birth?
As already mentioned, your body first needs to recover from pregnancy and childbirth. The pelvic floor in particular has also been heavily strained and stretched. These layers of muscle and connective tissue first need to be gently strengthened again, as they fulfil an important task: the pelvic floor supports the internal organs in your abdomen, i.e. the vagina, uterus, bladder and rectum. A firm pelvic floor also ensures that we "hold tight" and don't leak urine or faeces unintentionally. You can read more about the pelvic floor here on my blog.
So if mothers return to their exercise programme too early and too intensively, this only puts additional strain on the already heavily stressed pelvic floor. As a result, it is not strengthened but further weakened. If the pelvic floor is weak, droplets of urine can leak uncontrollably when sneezing, for example. In the worst case scenario, this can result in a prolapse of the vagina, uterus or bladder with corresponding symptoms (e.g. incontinence, back pain, feeling of pressure). In the case of organ prolapse, surgery may even be necessary.
My conclusion
- Gentle postnatal gymnastics and attending a postnatal course are important. Especially if you want to return to sport afterwards.
- Start exercising after the postnatal course? Yes - but moderately and in a sport that is suitable for you and your personal postnatal situation.
- What signals does your body send you during and after exercise? Listen to it and respect your limits. And by that I don't mean a little muscle soreness, which is allowed.
- Be proud of your body and what it has achieved during pregnancy and birth! And also of what it does after the birth - for example, nourishing your child with your breast milk or dealing with the considerable sleep deficit that your child gives you. And don't compare your body with your pre-pregnancy figure or with the bodies of other women and mums. And certainly not with the supposed "role models" on social media!
Finally, I would like to finish with a quick Old wives' tale clear up: There is a myth that exercise makes breast milk "sour". This is not true. The fact is that more intensive training, the body only produces the metabolic product lactate (lactic acid). This does not harm your baby! Some babies just don't like the taste of milk when breastfeeding. But "sour" in the sense of "sour milk", which is bad and no longer edible, does not happen here! Many mothers also simply breastfeed their babies before exercise.
