I was just reading a report on exercise and labour and it said that women who maintained a high level of fitness (ie. runners and dancers, etc.) during their pregnancy, went into labour an average of 5 days earlier, had a much shorter labour, and fewer complications than women who had been fit and stopped exercising during pregnancy.
So that got me thinking - does anyone have a real life experience of being a "sort of fit" person? I've been doing a prenatal exercise video every week day for the past 8 weeks or so, and intend to keep it up as long as I can. It's been WONDERFUL for my aches, pains, and energy level! Highly recommend it to anyone! It's 40 min of warm-up, cardio, pilates, and stretching. What impact is this *likely* to have on my labour? I've never done any real regular exercise through any of my other pregnancies before, and I already go pretty quickly. Except for my first, it's been 1.5 to 2 hours of labour or so from 4cm to birth. This is baby number 5.
I know there's no guarantee of anything, and labour can be unpredictable, but can anyone share their experience, of going from no exercise to regular exercise and it's impact on their labour?
Thanks!