The fitter and healthier you are before you get pregnant, the more able you are to cope during the pregnancy and the faster your body will whip back into shape after the birth.
When Caron Bosler, fell pregnant with her first child, she was surprised to learn in 'What to Expect When Your Expecting' that exercise really benefits: your stamina, sleep, health, mood, your back, your muscles, bowels, labour and post-partum recovery. "It also benefits your baby!" she says, "I learned babies are more fit, smarter and easier to deal with if the mum exercised throughout her pregnancy."
Pilates Squared situated in London's Gloucester Road, offers one-to-one Pilates training for mum's-to-be and can help mum's spring back into shape afterwards.
Caron says: "Exercises vary greatly depending on the fitness level of the mother before she got pregnant. All of the Pilates apparatuses can be used throughout pregnancy but certain exercises will be avoided. Pelvic floor exercises will be increased dramatically to prepare for the extra weight. These little muscles get put through the paces and the stronger they are the less "accidents" there'll be before and after delivery and obviously, we will cease any exercises lying on the back or front."