Your stories

Alice's story

Please remember that everyone will need to exercise at their own level depending on their experience and existing fitness levels. These stories are to showcase individuals' exercise during pregnancy, and are not examples for everyone to follow.

"As a Strength and Conditioning Coach and competitive Triathlete, being able to train and remain active throughout my pregnancy was incredibly important to me. It was not just about the health benefits that can be gained from exercising, sport is my job, it's my hobby, it's how I socialise and how I de-stress. 

Remaining active through pregnancy was one of the best decisions I made. With the support and advice from my midwife team, coach and physiotherapist, I was able to run until 35 weeks, cycle and weight train to 37 weeks and swim until the day before I went into labour at 38 weeks. I also did a lot of walking with the dog - being out in the fresh air was one of the things I used to make myself feel better when I was having a bad day. My body felt better for moving and I still felt like myself even though so many changes were happening both physically and mentally. 

I also wanted to help normalise exercising whilst pregnant. I was really quite shocked that the general reaction to me announcing my pregnancy was people assumed that I was done with training, racing and even my job. I wanted to show just how strong women are, that being pregnant doesn’t mean we need to be wrapped in cotton wool and that remaining active can be a wonderful thing”.