Despite some concerns, the pelvic-muscle exercises many women do during pregnancy do not seem to raise the likelihood of complications during labour and delivery.
Prenatal exercises for the muscles of the pelvic floor, also known as Kegel exercises, have long been advocated for preventing incontinence during and after pregnancy.
However, some doctors have expressed concern that the muscle training may make the pelvic floor too strong and less elastic, making labour and delivery more difficult. Therefore, researchers from Norway surveyed 18,865 women who gave birth between 2000 and 2005 to estimate whether women doing pelvic floor muscle training before and during pregnancy had a higher risk of perineal lacerations, episiotomy, vacuum/forceps delivery, or acute caesarean delivery.
Twenty-eight percent women started performing Kegel exercises at least three times per week by the 30th week of pregnancy. Another 43 percent did them less than once a week or not at all.
It was found that 7 percent of women who infrequently or never performed Kegel exercises suffered severe tearing during childbirth, compared with 6 percent of those who frequently performed the exercises.
Rates of delivery requiring forceps or a vacuum were 16 percent and 15 percent, respectively, while unplanned c-section rates were 9 percent and 7 percent.
The researchers concluded that women who frequently performed Kegel exercises were no more likely to suffer tears during delivery or needed an unplanned caesarean section or instrument-assisted delivery.