One thing that pregnant women have in common is pain and discomfort. It may be more severe for some than for others but it remains constant in all pregnancy stories. The most common is pelvic girdle pain which is very different from abdominal pain.

Pelvic girdle pain is actually pain that occurs on the pelvic joints. This includes the joints that connect to the triangular bone (sacrum) that is located between your hip bones at the back of the pelvis and the joint that brings together the two halves of the front of the pelvis. It is said to be caused by changes in the ligaments as the baby grows. A hormone known as relaxin is produced during pregnancy and it causes the joints to relax in preparation for the baby’s exit.
This leaves the mother with loose joints during
pregnancy and pain from the stretched ligaments.

Symptoms of Pelvic Girdle Pain
Some women experience pain in their pelvis and it my run down to their buttocks or thighs. Sometimes doctors confuse this pain with sciatica because it is also characterized by pain shooting down the back of the leg. You could also feel pain around your hips, lower back, and groin and in your pelvic floor. Some even feel some pain around their vagina and anus.

The impact of exercise
Exercise is known to trigger the release of endorphin. This hormone induces a relaxed feeling and also reduces sensitivity to pain. This could therefore work on pelvic girdle pain. Working out during pregnancy without previously having a regular workout schedule may cause immense discomfort and could easily dissuade you from continuing. Those that had a regular workout schedule before they got pregnant are
more likely to continue exercising during pregnancy, even if not throughout the pregnancy.

A study of 39,000 women was conducted between 2000 and 2009, when these women were expecting their first child. These women were part of the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study. This study has been keeping track of the health of Norwegian women who were recruited between 1999 and 2008 as well as their children. The study involved women
between the ages of 14 and 46.

The women all got a routine scan at week 17 of their pregnancy and were questioned about how frequently they exercised and what kinds of exercise they engaged in during the 3 months before pregnancy. The different types of exercise covered include swimming, jogging, brisk walking, cycling, dancing, ball games, high-impact and low-impact prenatal aerobics, horse riding, ball games and cross country skiing. The team then looked at how often and how intense pelvic girdle pain was for these women at week 30.

Result
They found that 56.5% of the women used to exercise at least thrice a week before they got pregnant, 90% had continued to exercise and were still doing so in the 17 th week of pregnancy and 7% had not exercised at all. 10% of all the women experienced pelvic girdle pain but among those who had not exercised, the
figure was at 12.5%. Those women who had exercised about three to five times a week reduced their chances of developing pelvic girdle pain in pregnancy by about 14%. Activities that were associated with a lower risk of pain included jogging, running, orienteering, high
impact aerobics and ballgames although higher
exercise levels was not found to decrease the risk of pelvic girdle pain. The study also found that there was a higher likelihood that those who reported this pain were smoking, under 25, overweight and had a history of lower back pain and depression.

It is therefore safe to say that women, especially those who plan to have children, should exercise regularly so as to reduce the chances of pain, possible disability and depression during and after pregnancy.

http://naijaparents.com/exercising-before-pregnancy-will-help-ease-pregnancy-pains/

Definitely bookmarking this. Thanks OP.