I know in times past pregnancy could make a woman more vulnerable to predators as she could not run fast enough to keep up with the rest of the tribe, but in modernity is there any hard rationale for the no lifting, no hard exertion after x months rules that seek to treat pregnant women as if they are made of glass?
I realize some women might have problems, but are most pregnant women really all that frail? Have evolutionary pressures requiring extended gestation and large heads etc made human females especially vulnerable relative to other animals?
During pregnancy, your body starts to manufacture more of a certain hormone (the name of which escapes me at the moment) that loosens your ligaments in preparation for labor and delivery. This is in part what leads to the pregnancy waddle that you see women doing in the second and third trimesters. I’ve been told that because of this, it’s not a smart idea to do a lot of weight lifting during pregnancy.
This may be an urban legend, but it seemed to make sense to me. Maybe someone else will come along with some hard, cold facts.
Ms. Whatsit, I just googled it, and it’s supposedly called Relaxin, believe it or not. I certainly don’t remember it and I’ve had two kids, albeit 20 and 17 years ago.
To address the OP, I had two extremely healthy and problem-free pregnancies, so in my case I didn’t restrict anything. In fact, here’s an anecdote that still makes me laugh: about eight months into my second pregnancy, I was at work and had to retrieve a fairly heavy box from storage. I worked with about 98% men who would have been happy to help, but it really didn’t occur to me to ask. I retrieved the box and entered the elevator. I had trouble punching the button for my floor, so I balanced the box on top of my quite sizeable belly, and punched the button. I was still standing that way when the elevator doors opened at my floor. The horrified look on my boss’s face was truly priceless. He almost killed himself taking the box from me.
Pregnant women can compete in marathons and almost anything else a non-pregnant woman can. This depends entirely on the viability of the pregnancy and the comfort level of the mom, and many other things, but frail, most times not. I guess YMMV is appropriate here.
I was “frail” about 80% of the time, IIRC. I had lots and lots of pain - lifting my leg to put on pants was excruciating, I kid you not. Couldn’t open jars. Nausea, stuffed up sinuses (but a really great sense of smell), tired. Very, very tired. Drove more slowly, cried easily, sudden and ravenous hunger, the works.
At only about 5 months pregnant I was playing a concert in our orchestra and had to give up during intermission, the heat from the lights was too much.
I was 38, out of shape to begin with and pregnant w/twins, which is automatically considered “high risk”. Prematurity is a big problem with twin pregnancies, and the mortality rate for twins is very high. I’ve met quite a few women online who lost twins.
So I listened to my body (and my OB) and cut my activity down to zero. And carried my twins to 38 weeks, 5 days; however, I DID drive myself to the hospital for the scheduled C-Section. Husband just wasn’t moving fast enough to suit me.
This kind of question sits at the nexus. I don’t necessarily think there’s a hard GQ answer to this as the notion of “frailness” is somewhat variable. I’m mostly seeking women’s opinions about whether they consider themselves frail when pregnant or not, and any scientific data relating to this would be welcome also. I could have placed it either way but since I was soliciting personal experience opinions and hard data I decided to place it here.
Because of Relaxin you need to be careful with what you do, but they certainly aren’t as frail as before, if they’re generally healthy.
One pregnant friend of mine is about 7 months and she still takes a twice weekly hard core bootcamp class at the gym (with some modifications). Also, one of my instructors at the gym is around 8 months and is still teaching weights and step classes.
I wouldn’t call myself frail, but towards the end I couldn’t do a lot of things like I used to. I produce really huge babies, and it was very awkward and, with the second one, painful. So I couldn’t work out after 7 months because it just hurt a lot.
A lot of my energy and strength was going into producing a 10-lb baby. There just wasn’t all that much left over. Now, if I’d been one of those women who have cute little perky basketballs under their t-shirts, maybe I could have worked out more. But pregnancy is very individual, and every woman is going to have a different experience.
I had easy pregnancies and didn’t consider myself frail. But I had heard a tale of the exactly old wive (been playing Zuma a lot) about doing stuff that required extending my arms above my head so I didn’t wash walls toward the end.
Actually, studies indicate that the vast majority of pregnant women are better off if they are more physically active, not less.
There’s a reduced risk for pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, and regular physical activity actually reduces the number of complaints about musculo-skeletal pain during gestation.
In addition, it aids in accelerating appropriate post-delivery weight loss without impacting lactation.
There’s some evidence that it can also reduce the incidence of post-partum depression too.
There are exceptions, of course. And a woman should be guided by her doctor.
But by and large, the myth of frailty solely due to pregnancy should be put to rest.
I did not consider myself “frail”, mainly because I had healthy pregnancies, and with the second and third, I was too busy dealing with preschool-age older siblings to think about it much. Mommy just couldn’t be “frail”, because if Mommy collapsed onto the sofa with a fit of the pregnancy vapors, little mouths wouldn’t be fed and little bottoms wouldn’t be cleaned. So you soldier on, and the chaise longue gathers dust.
Also, my husband still relates with amazement the time I went out and shoveled the entire driveway after a substantial snowfall when I was seven months preg with #2. Well, I needed to go somewhere with #1, and the driveway was snowed in, and there was the shovel, and who you gonna call. Mommy, that’s who.
I also did a good deal of gardening throughout #2 and #3. Like, I wanted those privet bushes cut off, NOW, and there was the garden saw and the loppers, and who you gonna call.
Mommy, that’s who.
I spent more time putting down the loppers and chasing a giggling two-year-old down the alley than I did lopping off bushes. And if you had told me I was “frail”, I’d have given you a blank look. I’m running laps up and down the alley, interspersed with removing an entire privet hedge. Frail? Nuh-uh.
I would add though that I was TIRED. I was asleep on the couch by 9:00 every single night with the first one. When I was pregnant with my second son, the older one was 3 yrs 8 months and quite self sufficient, so then I imagine I stayed awake until he was safely in bed.
My mom was helping my dad do a little light roofing (you know, shingling, in the August heat) when her water broke with her first baby. I’m going to go with “not all that frail.”
Hmm, reading this, it occurs to me where I got my lack of sense about where my physical limits are.
Seriously, I was really sad when Julia Roberts was photographed going to Pilates class while pregnant with her twins. Who were born prematurely.
Some of the women who get themselves in a lot of trouble carrying twins are those who’ve already had one child and think they’ve got the hang of pregnancy.
As others have noted, it varies very, very widely. One incontrovertable fact is that in the later stages, especially if one has become rather large, balance can be an issue. After all, you’ve spent decades balancing yourself in one way, and then within a few months your center of gravity shifts. And a bad fall late in pregnancy can lead to Bad Things Happening.
In some times past, when the common thinking was that a pregnant woman (especially if not a working woman) was delicate, many women did nothing at all, which actually led to their becoming less fit.
Tangent: My mother told me that women in the 40s were expected to lie in bed for at least a week after a delivery, with debilitating results. She herself, being of strong mind, would get up and walk around at night when no one would notice. After 3 days she said enough of this and insisted she was going home. The professionals said of course not, you can’t even walk around yet. Oh, yes I can, she countered, and proceeded to do so.
ETA: As far as the evolutionary issue, it seems to me that pregnant women for the most part can remain quite active. Of course, humans are quite prolilfic as a species, and the loss of a single pregnancy is in evolutionary terms not that significant for a hunter-gatherer, since within a year you can have another.
I had an abortion last year when I was almost three months along. During the couple of weeks before the procedure, I was so sick every morning and walking made me feel like I was going to faint. I’ve heard that, after the first trimester, the nausea goes away, but I was most definitely “frail” during that time. I couldn’t wait to have the abortion and be able to walk decent distances again! That being said, dunno if the OP is referring to late-term pregnancy more than what I was experiencing.
Never been pregnant, but anecdotally it seems to vary a great deal, and one should take a pregnant woman at her word and not assume they are just being precious: you never know who has their cervix sewn shut or even who has discovered they pull muscles very easily during pregnancy and so need to take it easy.
And I highly recommend you do NOT tease a very pregnant woman about “how cute” her waddle is. I don’t know remember any more what nerve my first-born was sitting on - sciatic maybe? - but it HURT. If I could have, I would have hopped on my left leg and not even involved my right. Man, that hurt!
As noted already, it varies widely woman to woman and even pregnancy to pregnancy. I had a great pregnancy - no morning sickness and was able to run up until my eighth month when the pressure on my cervix and my bladder was way more than was comfortable. Even after I stopped running, I still wouldn’t say I was frail after I had to stop running. I walked most days and kept up with my regular schedule. And after my husband threw out his back while we were moving during the late part of my eighth month, I carried a lot of boxes myself.
I was running again the third week after my son was born, though it took me longer than it would have otherwise to recover thanks to ecclampsia and a two-week migraine.
In contrast, a friend of mine in her 20s had pregnancy-related arthritis and had to walk with a cane for both pregnancies.
One way or the other, I’d second that you take a pregnant woman at her word. Also, pregnant women should trust their bodies - three weeks before I was due, I was certain I’d deliver early. My OB kept telling me not to worry and that I’d deliver nearer my due date. The day he told me he’d see me next week I went into labor and had my baby 36 hours later.
