Study reveals that exercising when pregnant will help you give birth much faster

Pregnancy is different for everyone.

Some might thrive through it all, while others just want to lie on the couch all day and give into cravings. And for some, the absolute last thing on their minds is exercising while they have a little human growing in them. However, a new study has found that women who exercise during pregnancy generally give birth quicker than those who don't. The study was carried out by Professor Ruben Barakat and his team at the Technical University of Madrid. They assessed 508 healthy pregnant women by splitting them up into two groups. One group were advised to do no exercise at all during their pregnancy, while the other group was given a programme of moderate aerobic exercises to complete regularly. When each of the women gave birth, the researchers primarily studied their labours; more specifically how long each labour took. They also studied how the babies were delivered, whether or not they had an epidural, how much the babies weighed, and how much weight the women had gained throughout the pregnancy. They found that those who exercised had a quicker birth than those who didn't. "A supervised physical exercise programme throughout pregnancy decreased the duration of the first phase of labour as well as total time of the first two phases together, leading to a decrease in total labour time," the researchers explained. However, as always, we're all for you doing you. If you don't fancy exercising while carrying your little one, that's perfectly fine, and no one should be pressured into doing so... especially not from just one scientific study.