The human species are acknowledged as the dominant species at the top of the evolutionary tree. We are where we are at the peak due to our possession of knowledge and our application of the knowledge we have. Strangely, though, while we know a lot about what’s way out there in outer space, there is not much that we really know about what’s very close to us.

Take pregnancy, for example. Every human being on this lonely planet came into being through a process called pregnancy. Of course, there may come a time when test-tube babies become the norm but it’s still very much in the realm of science fiction. So, no matter where we end up in life later on, we all started in our mothers’ wombs. Our mothers have to get pregnant to have us. No pregnancy, no human beings. It’s that simple.

Yet, for something that’s so important to the survival of the human species, there is so much that we don’t know about pregnancy. Specifically, we view pregnancy through a haze of myths. Especially myths concerning exercising during pregnancy.

Don’t exercise if you haven’t done it before

This is a very common myth. Women who haven’t exercised before they are pregnant are told not to start exercising after they get pregnant. Nothing can be further from the truth. In the first place, women who believe this are probably also those who had never ever been pregnant before. That’s why it’s so easy for them to believe it.

The truth is that pregnancy and childbirth requires a lot of strength. A pregnancy progresses gradually but it does increase the burden on the muscles of the body. Childbirth itself is a very strenuous process. All this means that the pregnant mother must have more strength to get through it all.

So, the correct thing to do is for the pregnant mother to start exercising if she hasn’t been doing it before. As in all things, small gradual increments is the way to go. Start with simple exercises for short periods of time. Consult a doctor, if in doubt. https://reviewsacademy.com/best-pregnancy-pillow/ Increase the exercises gradually. Do what feels comfortable. You will need all that extra strength for the childbirth.

Don’t let your bpm go beyond 140

This is your heart beat as measured in beat per minute aka bpm. The first thing to know is that everyone has a different bpm. Some are higher. Some are lower. So the 140 figure is just an arbitrary figure which has no basis in real life. The thinking behind this myth is that if you exercise and your heartbeat goes beyond 140 bpm, you will be depriving the baby in your womb of oxygen. This is not true. It has nothing to do with the 140 bpm number.

What you should do when you exercise is to do the talk test. This is much more accurate than the 140 bpm number. After you have exercised for five or ten minutes, you should still be able to talk normally without gasping. If you can do that, that means you are exercising at the right rate. If you can still sing, then you are exercising at a lower than optimum rate.

Exercising will deprive your baby of nutrients

True, exercising does burn up calories. However, does this mean that exercising will deprive the baby in the womb of its necessary nutrients? No, not at all. In the first place, that’s not how the mother’s body works. When a woman is pregnant, the baby in the womb is always given priority where nutrients are concerned. If the pregnant mother is not eating enough, then the nutrients will be taken from that stored in her body.

That brings us to another myth, which is not exactly related to exercising. Pregnant mothers are told to eat enough for two. It’s actually quite a silly thing to do. Just look at the size of the mother and the size of the baby in her womb. The mother is more than ten times the size of the baby. How is it even necessary to eat enough for two?

What’s more accurate is that the baby in the womb needs about 300 calories per day. How much is 300 calories? A simple way is to look at a typical breakfast. There are two slices of bread, an egg and a sausage. That’s about 300 calories. So that’s what a pregnant mother needs to eat in addition to her normal diet. More or less, like just a second helping of breakfast. For the whole day.

Looking on the bright side, there are some good news for women who exercise while pregnant. Studies showed that babies born to mothers who exercise while pregnant are likely to have fewer health problems later in life. For one, their blood vessels are stronger. This is a result of their mothers’ exercising. Just like what a mother eats will affect the baby in her womb, so will exercising improve the health of the baby in her womb.

It’s high time that we use some critical thinking in understanding how exercise affects a pregnant mother. We don’t need any myths to befuddle such an important process of life.

About the author:

Veronica is an enthusiastic blogger that writes for Reviews Academy. At RA, she reviews entire categories of products and not individual models in order to offer you a complete picture of all options available on the market. Her mission is to provide the readers with comprehensive and trustworthy opinions to help them make the perfect buying decision.