Because of these discomforts, women may believe they have nine months when exercise is nearly impossible.
Other women will not give up their exercise routines for everything, not even pregnancy.
It is not uncommon to see women teaching exercise classes or power-walking even with their protruding stomachs.
The truth is that most women fall somewhere in between these two extremes and neither refuse to exercise nor insist upon it, and doctors actually prefer this.
When pregnant, exercise is usually recommended by doctors for a number of reasons.
Of course, one of the most important reasons to exercise during pregnancy is to prevent excess weight gain, which can happen so easily.
Other women swear that exercising while pregnant makes the delivery process easier.
However, if you do plan to exercise during your pregnancy, there are some important things to consider to protect both your own health and that of your baby.
Monitoring your heart rate is extremely important when you work out during a pregnancy.
A mother's heart rate that is too high can be dangerous for unborn babies, and this is especially true in the first trimester.
A test called the talk test will help you to monitor your heart rate to make sure it is steady and safe during exercise.
To conduct this test, try talking while exercising.
Talking should be a challenge but should be doable without causing too much distress or huffing and puffing.
Although exercise is important during pregnancy, it is not a good idea to begin new routines or to introduce exercises with which you are not familiar.
This is why it is also important to exercise before you become pregnant, because you will have an established routine that is comfortable and familiar to you, and you can continue this routine during the pregnancy.
Some modifications may be necessary, of course, especially during the later stages of the pregnancy.
An example of healthy modification would be an avid runner moving down to a jog and then a walk, as the pregnancy progresses.
Floor exercises, like crunches or push ups, are still okay until about fourteen weeks, but then it is recommended that they are discontinued for the duration of the pregnancy and replaced with safer alternative.
Even if you did not already have an established exercise routine before your pregnancy, you must still make an effort to find exercises you can do.
Most doctors recommend walking if you are not experiencing a high-risk pregnancy.
This only needs to be done three times a week, for half an hour each time.
Even though it may be a little more difficult and you may have to slow down during the third trimester, walking is a safe exercise that can be performed during the entire duration of the pregnancy.
Walking is not only beneficial to maintain a healthy weight, but it can actually induce labor in a healthy way.
In fact, many doctors recommended walking quite often during the last few weeks of the pregnancy to bring on healthy labor.
Women who have been able to maintain a walking routine during pregnancy report easier delivery and shorter recovery periods than those who did not exercise.
Although pregnant women may have the idea of kicking up their feet and lounging on the couch for nine months, this is not the healthiest way to go.
Although it is true that strenuous exercise is not recommended, pregnancy is no excuse to stop all exercise.