# Athletes giving birth



## Lkg4dmcrc (Jan 6, 2006)

I read on the Pink Kit Guide to Birthing Better website that athletes are too toned to give birth vaginally and thus end up with cesarean's often. They also have issues with control and athletic performance which hinders them in uncontrollable child birth. What does everyone think of this? Any athletes out there who did have easy vaginal births? If so, what sports do you do?

I am a swimmer and had a very traumatic cesarean. The surgeon and the midwife were very impressed with my abs when they cut me open and both said that they had never seen anyone with such strong stomach muscles. I don't really believe though that my overly toned fit self caused the cesarean anymore than my control issues did though. I am not sure what to make of the Pink Kit information either.

Thoughts?


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## mama_at_home (Apr 27, 2004)

I can't say for sure about athletes having trouble surrendering to childbirth when they are so used to being in control. But as far as being too fit and toned for a vaginal birth? I don't believe that for a second. If anything, I think it would help.


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## USAmma (Nov 29, 2001)

So sorry mama.









I was a world class long distance runner from 6th grade to college. During my first pregnancy I walked 2+ miles per day and was very much in shape (although I gained a TON of weight, I was still very strong). I had a very easy vaginal birth with 8 hours of labor and about 20 minutes (if that) of pushing. Dd#2's birth was after long bedrest but was also and easy birth. Before kids I had a very small frame and narrow pelvis. My babies were both in the 7 pound range at 38 and 39 weeks.

I did have major control issues but it was because of past abuse, not becuase of being an athlete. I had epidurals and at the time they were exactly what I needed. If I had a third (which we won't-- dh is fixed) I would probably try for a homebirth just because I'm not scared of birth anymore and have a good support system.


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## True Blue (May 9, 2003)

The fitness thing doesn't make much sense since hundreds of years ago, everyone was probably pretty fit. Farming, hunting and gathering, etc would make fitness inevitable. I could see some emotional control issues possibly being a problem, but I would think that a woman well educated on birth could really use all that focus and control to her advantage.


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## courtenay_e (Sep 1, 2005)

Yup. There's a book called "Expecting Fitness" by a personal trainer who works with all kinds of stars, including world class athletes, and apparently, this trainer's mamas have an extremely high rate of vaginal birth. I was also a competitive(though not world class...) athlete most of my life (swimming, diving, dancing and gymnastics), had a ROCK HARD body, and had a VERY *VERY* easy vaginal birth with my first, was a little less in shape with my second (but still exercised all the way through the pregnancy...it was that my pregnancies were rather close together and I hadn't gotten back all the tone from before my first yet), and STILL had an even easier time of it.

I think they just have poor information. You need to know the physiology of labor and understand how to relax and allow your body to do the work of labor. The more in shape your muscles are, the easier the labor should be, barring any unusual circumstances (like being in a hospital...and all the stuff that goes along with that situation!).


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## QueenOfThePride (May 26, 2005)

When I got pregnant, I was training about three hours a day four days a week in Brazilian Jiujitsu (like wrestling), Muay Thai kickboxing, and weight lifting. One of my favorite exercizes was to do sit-ups where someone punches you in the stomach with each sit-up. Three months previous to the pregnancy I had just competed in my first real amateur kickboxing fight. I was pretty much in peak physical condition.

Labor did freak me out. The pain was distracting and I didn't know how to relax. I didn't know much about labor back then. I didn't realize there would be such a long period of time where I wasn't supposed to do anything. I guess I thought I would just push the baby out and that would be that. I was in the hospital and had a lot of interventions because one thing led to another. Stadol - monitors - pitocin - epidural. I had a 24 hour labor with a posterior baby. He finally flipped over right at the end and I pushed for an hour. They stopped the epidural drip for pushing and feeling returned for the last half hour. The only time labor felt really good was the last ten minutes of pushing that actually felt like I was doing something. I was really good at pushing, and the pain didn't bother me at that point. I never held my breath, I did weight-lifting breathing - blowing out to push. It was natural for me. My OB said she never saw anyone breathe and push before. I didn't break any blood vessels in my eyes or face and I only had a little skin tear.

Maybe athletes like me have a hard time dealing with pain that you aren't supposed to fight. But now I know for my next labor that I need to relax more. And that's a mental thing, I don't think it has anything to do with the muscle strength.


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## ABand3 (May 21, 2005)

Around the time I gave birth to my first (and received an episiotomy in a free standing birth center - with like a <5% epis rate), I had a friend who was an avid horseback rider tell me that she and many of her friends who rode, all had problems with a "thick perineum", apprarently from riding often. They all had episiotomies (well, who didn't in 1999/2000?), and they or their OBs attributed it to the riding. I also rode weekly before getting pg, but I don't really buy that it led to the epis.


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## midwifetx (Mar 16, 2005)

I have had a couple of athletes tell me that labor felt like a betrayal. Their body that they had always had absolute mastry over was doing something painful without their consent, and it was difficult. They were not c-sections, though.

The most amazing births I've ever seen were women involved in martial arts. I think that it promotes surrender and working WITH their bodies rather than seeing their bodies as the adversary to be mastered.

FWIW, the horse riders and ballerinas I've known have all had cast iron perineums, but they did *eventually* stretch out to allow the baby through. It took some work to get past.


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## ma_Donna (Jan 11, 2003)

I did synchronized swimming for years - far from a super athelete and these days overweight and not swimming regularly. Synchro is a lot about isometrics, body position, pelvic tilts. My Mw said during Noah's delivery that my hyminal ring was a bit tight and askked what sports I've done. It may have held things up a little bit, but not much.


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## boheime (Oct 25, 2005)

I think the "control" issues are that....women who know their bodies are capable of doing what they are designed for....are much less likely to give up control to someone else and blindly do what they are told. Birth professionals don't like that.


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## AmyAngel (Dec 3, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *midwifetx*

FWIW, the horse riders and ballerinas I've known have all had cast iron perineums, but they did *eventually* stretch out to allow the baby through. It took some work to get past.

I've heard this too, that ballerinas sometimes take longer because of that.


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## Defenestrator (Oct 10, 2002)

I noticed as a doula that athletic moms often had really hard pushing stages at the hospital but didn't have the same experience at home and didn't really understand why until reading some of the pp's comments. I think that athletes who are heavily coached during birth will sometimes try to get their bodies to perform for the caregiver and end up working too hard, with the wrong muscles, etc. (like moms who will push and really tighten up their thigh muscles, essentially holding the baby in). However, the moms I work with at home, who are given almost no direction regarding pushing -- not told when to push, when to begin pushing, when to stop pushing, how to push, etc. don't seem to have this problem. They are listening to the feedback that their bodies are giving them and not listening to the static that the care provider brings into the picture.

I do find that sometimes athletic moms have very, very strong perineums, and that their babies can take a long time to crown. All of the babies have come out just fine, but sometimes it seems like it isn't working and we have to be a little extra patient.


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## QueenOfThePride (May 26, 2005)

Quote:

I do find that sometimes athletic moms have very, very strong perineums, and that their babies can take a long time to crown. All of the babies have come out just fine, but sometimes it seems like it isn't working and we have to be a little extra patient.
That makes a lot of sense. It took forever for my son to crown. When he finally came out, he had a humongous bruise over the top of his head. The bruise was filled with blood or water and was soft and squishy. It was over half an inch thick and about four inches in diameter. I didn't realize a huge bruise was abnormal until I saw another newborn a few days ago with no bruising. Maybe my perineum was too strong.

However, I requested to not have any coaching for pushing, and my OB and nurses respected that. Pushing felt natural for me. I instinctively felt where to relax and where to push.


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## Lkg4dmcrc (Jan 6, 2006)

Thanks ladies. I have been thinking a lot about this and think that there are differences between athletes and competitors and differences for these groups when things are going right and when things are not going as birth would normally unfold.

I think - and would love feedback - that the woman who is a competitive athlete will do really well in childbirth and have an easy time of birthing if things are progressing as everyone expects or nothing out of the ordinary happens. However, when labor takes an unexpected turn, the competitive athlete will try and take control back, get very tense, etc. This is of course not good for birth. For competitors I think of it like this- in a race/event, when you are doing really well and you know it, you are completely relaxed in both mind and body and going through the motions of the race/event. When however, you are behind, you have to push yourself and your cannot relax until you feel you have done all you can to go faster, pass the person in front of you, or whatever obstacle you see as the challenge. The competitor just does not know how to relax and enjoy the race/event if she is not doing as well as she expects - especially if the race/event is important to her. I think this part of the competitive psyche can be detrimental to childbirth when things go awry. When things are not progressing as they should, it is easy to see how a competitor would not relax and would try and do whatever it takes to get over that obstacle. When things go well though for a competitor, she can easily relax and have a beautiful birth because that is the beauty behind the competitive psyche - you can get very relaxed in a competition.


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