Empowered Motherhood: Pilates for a Healthy Pregnancy & Birth
As I write this, I am currently 36 weeks pregnant with my first child. Naturally, as a pelvic rehab provider and certified Pilates instructor, I chose Pilates exercise to help me stay strong, mobile, and healthy during my pregnancy. I have worked with many expecting mothers over the years who reaped the benefits of Pilates exercise during their pregnancy, but experiencing the positive effects within my own body further fueled my passion and trust in this exercise modality to support pregnancy. Here’s why:
My Personal Experience:
During my first trimester, I noticed the effects of pregnancy on my body fairly quickly. Ligamentous laxity in my pelvis made me feel a little heavier when walking, kind of like I lost some of the springiness in my steps. Right away, I started to focus on strengthening exercises for my lower back, abdominals, hips, and pelvic floor. This helped me keep up with my daily walking regime.
Later in my second trimester, I started to experience pain in the back of my pelvis, along with sciatic nerve symptoms (pain, numbness, tingling, and weakness) that affected my left side. During this particular time, I started a daily Pilates practice for only 20-30 minutes per day. It was easy to stay consistent because, after each Pilates workout, I would feel great the rest of the day. After about 2 weeks, my sciatic symptoms and pelvic pain had completely resolved. I have continued to keep up with a Pilates workout 1-3 times per week. This is all it takes! My pelvic and nerve pain has not returned!
Another common pregnancy-related side effect I experienced in my second trimester was urinary leakage. Talk about humbling! Due to postural changes, laxity of the ligaments, and increased pressure on the bladder with a growing baby, it's hard to escape this pregnancy symptom, but it can be managed! With modifications to my Pilates workouts to emphasize pelvic floor strengthening, it has been a while now since this has occurred. Thank goodness!
Finally, as my pregnancy progressed and my belly grew larger, swelling in my legs and feet became more apparent, and I started to lose mobility when getting out of bed. This is where I am currently in my pregnancy. Maintaining core strength, understanding good body mechanics, and knowing good blood circulation strategies/exercises have enabled me to navigate these obstacles and stay functional for work and daily life.
As you can see, it's very important to seek a skilled and certified Pilates instructor with specific knowledge of pregnancy-related changes and precautions. Since each trimester of pregnancy can bring about different symptoms and pain, having a skilled instructor or therapist who can make appropriate modifications and adaptations to the exercises and positioning ensures you can stick with Pilates exercise throughout your entire pregnancy. Having a skilled instructor also ensures that Pilates effectively manages your pain and symptoms.
Other common pregnancy conditions include pelvic girdle pain, pubic symphysis pain, and low back pain.
How does Pilates address these issues?
One of the many benefits of Pilates during pregnancy is that it improves core strength and lumbopelvic stability. Instability of the joints during pregnancy occurs due to laxity of the ligaments from hormonal changes. Particularly with an increase in the hormone Relaxin. This laxity of the joints and postural changes with a growing abdomen, which shifts the pregnant body’s center of gravity forward, puts increased strain on the pelvis and lower back. This can lead to pain at the front or back of the pelvis and into the lower back. Pilates exercises during pregnancy can be used to enhance postural alignment and strengthen the core musculature, including the deep abdominals and pelvic floor to improve stability and balance.
With over 500 Pilates exercise variations and modifications, Pilates can be accessible to all levels of fitness, functional mobility, and conditions. During pregnancy, there are often positional modifications that are required to ensure the mother’s level of comfort and safety. Pilates equipment is also adaptive to facilitate stability and support the pregnant body.
Benefits of Pilates during Pregnancy:
In a study by Sonmezer, et al. assessing the effects of Pilates exercises on functional disability, pain, quality of life, and lumbopelvic stability in pregnant women with low back pain found that Pilates resulted in significant improvements in sleep, mobility, pain, and lumbopelvic stability in pregnant women and can be recommended as effective and safe for addressing these factors.
Additionally, Pilates has been found to reduce stress urinary incontinence in a study by Urer, et al. comparing incontinence in pregnant women who participated in Pilates 2 times per week from the 12th week of pregnancy until birth with pregnant women who did not do Pilates. Stress urinary incontinence is urine leakage with an increase in intra-abdominal pressure, such as with sneezing, coughing, and laughing.
With an emphasis on breathing mechanics and focus during each Pilates exercise, participating in Pilates workouts also leads to stress relief and heightened mind-body connection.
Pilates doesn’t just help with pregnancy symptoms, it also enhances your childbirth experience. A systematic review by Baradwan, et al. evaluated the effect of Pilates during pregnancy on delivery outcomes and indicated that women who underwent Pilates exercise throughout their pregnancy, experienced reduced rate of C-sections, increased rate of vaginal deliveries, shorter labor duration, reduced occurrence of episiotomy, reduced need for epidural to manage pain, and higher Apgar scores. An Apgar score is a quick test performed soon after birth to assess your baby’s status to determine if emergency care is needed. The higher the score, the better their physical condition is.
Pilates at Evolve Pelvic Health & Wellness:
Evolve Pelvic Health & Wellness offers evaluation by a pelvic health specialist to assess and treat pregnancy-related symptoms and pain. Pilates exercises are incorporated into treatment sessions to address postural deficits, weakness, mobility issues, balance, etc.
Aside from pelvic health physical therapy, Evolve also offers private and semi-private Pilates exercise sessions. These sessions are conducted by a physical therapist and STOTT PILATES ® certified Pilates instructor with extensive knowledge and experience working with women during pregnancy.
Try These Pilates Exercises!
The following exercises address common areas of muscle tension, postural restriction, core strength, hip strength, lumbopelvic stability, and functional mobility to support the pregnant body. They are essential level mat-based exercises that are easy to perform at home as a sample of Pilates exercise.
Transverse Abdominis Contraction in Quadruped
Swimming Prep With Arm Reach
Swimming Prep With Leg Slides
Cat Stretch
Side Lying Spinal Rotation
Side Lying Leg Lifts
Squats
This blog post is not intended as medical or professional advice. Our exercise videos and images are provided for educational purposes only and are not intended to serve as medical or physical therapy advice to any individual. Any exercise has the potential to cause injury or pain if it is incorrectly done or is not the right exercise for an individual’s medical or physical problems. You should consult with a physical therapist or medical provider for individualized advice.
If you’re interested in learning more about Evolve Pelvic Health & Wellness and/or ready to get started, please click the link below.
References:
Sonmezer E, Özköslü MA, Yosmaoğlu HB. The effects of clinical pilates exercises on functional disability, pain, quality of life and lumbopelvic stabilization in pregnant women with low back pain: A randomized controlled study. Journal of Back & Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation. 2021;34(1):69-76. doi:10.3233/BMR-191810
Urer E, Ozen N, Terzioglu F. Effect of pilates performed during pregnancy on postpartum stress urinary incontinence in primipara women. Journal of Bodywork & Movement Therapies. 2023;35:228-232. doi:10.1016/j.jbmt.2023.04.022
Baradwan S, Khadawardi K, Alayed NM, et al. The effect of Pilates exercise during pregnancy on delivery outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Women & Health. 2024;64(2):131-141. doi:10.1080/03630242.2024.2304893
