RUNNING WHILE PREGNANT IS AS OFTEN FROWNED UPON AS IT IS ENDORSED. SO IS IT REALLY THE RIGHT THING TO DO? LAURA FOUNTAIN LOOKS AT CONFLICTING ATTITUDES AND UNCOVERS THE TRUTH ABOUT WHAT’S RIGHT AND WRONG

LAURA FOUNTAIN

Running while pregnant: should you or shouldn’t you?

BUMPY RUNNING

I was 6K into a 10K race and 20 weeks pregnant when I stopped to use the toilet. My pace was closer to ultramarathon survival than 10K PB, but I was enjoying myself on a sunny morning running with friends. The toilet block had introduced a 20p charge since I’d last used it, and I wasn’t prepared. I appealed to the toilet attendant: “I’m pregnant and mid race, any chance you can let me through?” He looked at my bump and ‘Baby on board!’ badge and told me, “You shouldn’t be running. You should be resting.”

I resisted telling him that my obstetrician would disagree with his prescription, or citing several examples of elite sports women training and competing up until giving birth, and just smiled while he opened the gate and let me through.

This is where we find ourselves right now as pregnant, post-natal and soon-to-be-pregnant runners. We’re occupying a world in which strangers tell us we shouldn’t be running while the media (and especially social media) present us with countless examples of sports women and amateur runners carrying on as though pregnancy is no more of a barrier to training than a mild case of DOMS. It can be difficult to know whether we’re doing the right thing and this can lead to feelings of guilt in mums-to-be over whether they’re doing too much or not doing enough.

STAYING ACTIVE

It was this lack of information on how much and what sort of exercise is right for pregnant women, while his wife was pregnant with their first child, that led Professor Greg Whyte to investigate the subject, resulting in his book Bump It Up (£10.15, Penguin Random House).