Hula Hooping Workout while Pregnant - Pregnancy Fitness - Positive Birth Story

Hula Hooping Workout while Pregnant - Pregnancy Fitness - Positive Birth Story

Let me share my experiences of keeping fit and hula hooping during my pregnancy. While pregnant it is normal to worry and to be influenced by others and opinions and I would like to maybe contribute with a positive input.

Let me first congratulate you on this magic and wish you the most amazing pregnancy and delivery experience one can ever have! I suppose you are watching this video because you are expecting. I am very happy for you!

The most important thing is to always consult with your midwife or physician, your healthcare provider because they are fully aware of your individual case. I am not. We are all different and come with different levels of health.

I saw lots of other examples of pregnant ladies working out and enjoying an active pregnancy. Lots of people we very negative about my workout habits and people told me I will have a miscarriage or premature delivery if I do not calm down. Some said I will deliver some special needs creature and I am damaging the baby. It was very hard to listen to not just the criticism but also the negative scary stories people had to share about their birth experience. I would like to encourage you to focus always on the positives, listen to your body and your healthcare providers and saturate your body and soul with excitement and happiness. There are always haters and judgement about whatever we do and when we are pregnant we are even more sensitive to things happening around us and things we get told. I am not trying to suggest you to follow my example but maybe use us in your visualizations when you need something positive. Whenever you need to neutralize some negativity always pull all your positive stories together to keep your chin up and make this a magical experience.

I must emphasize what I am about to share is my personal experience and I am not advising anyone to follow what I did. Always seek advice of your health care providers and listen to your body. You will feel if something is right or wrong. 

I did the same. Some days I did not exercise at all and some days I was bouncing off the wall because that felt good. There was times I only did some gentle stretches and Kegel exercises which I absolutely recommend you start doing if you haven’t done so yet. Perineal Massage is another important thing I did every day to soften my skin to prevent too much tear. I also attended a Hypnobirthing Course which I cannot recommend highly enough. 

My midwife and GP were all aware of my exercise regime. My GP actually worked out in the same gym where I did. She knew I was working out a lot before getting pregnant and she told me what I hear everywhere: if someone has been working out, it is ok to carry on exercising but starting something new is not recommended. So if you have not been hula hooping or weight lifting, do not start now BUT if you were already doing it anyway, it is supposed to be ok. 

I did not stress about the weight gain as such. My intention was not to be in shape because I knew I have to let go of my attachment to what I should look like. I was more focused on eating healthy and doing the things that made me feel great: like walking in the fresh air, meditation, walking barefoot, exercising when I felt full of energy.

Exercise helped my sleep problems. The days I did not workout I could not sleep but if I was active during the day I had a lot better sleep and appetite. 

I did not experience any problems during pregnancy or delivery. My blood sugar levels, blood pressure and all tests performed by my midwife always seemed to have perfect results. 

My midwife also said that both phyically and mentally I may enjoy benefits of my active life because exercise boosts happiness hormones in your body so it may reduce chances of developing depression. She also said that it should help delivery as well if I have excellent strength and endurance and body awareness. For giving birth one benefits from not only good cardiovascular fitness but body awareness, too. 

I experienced no back pain either which according to my midwife was  probably because of hulahooping giving me a strong core. I did gain a lot of weight but it came off easy after giving birth. I got back into my old self quite soon and felt physically and mentally well. 

We were planning for a home birth and I wanted to know lots about pregnancy and childbirth so I did a lot of reading about the topic and took my hypnbirthing course very seriously. At the end I delivered my daughter at home with no assistance. It was just daddy and me and then it was daddy and baby and me as a result of a 5 hour labour with zero interventions or medications. I am not trying to impress anyone with but maybe inspire. 

The hospital was 5 minutes from us and in the UK the system is that you notify the midwife about your choice of a home birth, give details of your address and contact details and so on. Then you call the hospital when labour starts and depending on the information you give they may send a midwife or ambulance if you need it. I was told I will have a midwife visit and if things do not progress then I will be induced at the hospital because my water broke. I accepted the situation as it was and went with the flow of events and the baby just came like a rocket even before the midwife could arrive. 

So you probably are researching this just like I did because of your worries and fears which is absolutely natural. You are doing great! Well done! Just for the record, the people who said I would have a miscarriage or premature baby were wrong because we actually ended up overdue 5 days. So it was 40 weeks and 5 days of pregnancy and even on my due date I was still hooping in the gym. 

My daughter will be 5 in a few weeks and she is ok. She is a normal kid with normal physical and mental and emotional development and she can hula hoop and speak a few languages, draw and all the things normal kids can do.  Her developmental stages were normal, too: she started crawling, walking, talking as normal and she does not stop talking which apparently is also normal for a nearly 5 year old little lady. She loves unicorns, rainbows, fairies and of course she will be a ballerina princess when she grows up.

I recommend that you have a list of positive stories you can remember when you worry. Have a look at hypnobirthing, pregnancy meditation, Kegel exercises and perineal massage. 

Do have a magical time expecting and delivering and I wish you insane amounts of love and health and happiness. Sending you lots of hugs and love, you will be an absolute champion!!!!

The video in Hungarian: