Magda Lewy-Boulet, who represented the US at Beijing in the Women's Marathon ran until the very DAY before she gave birth to her son Owen. Granted, she was super careful, very diligent about her heart rate and a slew of other things, but it can be done. See another doc and get a second opinion. I also recall seeing a lot of photos of Paula Radcliffe VERY pregnant and running a local 10k (whose "easy" pace was faster than I've ever run a mile...)

...I think you can still run, but perhaps see another doc who may know a little more about endurance sports + pregnancy.

The doc was very clear that it won't hurt the baby and it isn't the pregnancy she is worried about. She said it is more the risk of damaging my pelvic floor and the risk to me of incontinence later in life. So, I guess it is more the long term risk of doing damage to my body.

No experience, but maybe you could do pelvic floor exercises too to keep it strong while continuing to run?

http://www.babyworld.co.uk/...ise/pelvic_floor.asp

That's silly. So much for evidence-based medicine. There are no studies showing increased post-partum incontinence in active ladies that I am aware of or a quick pubmed search would reveal. I personally would switch docs, her recommendation to switch to 1x per week to curtain this imaginary pelvic floor damage is too much baloney for me, I'd wonder whether the rest of her medical expertise is of the same ilk.

I am NOT a doctor but I ran right up to the day I was induced (my little guy was 10 days late) and I have no incontinence problems. So I'm a sample of one but I have not had the problems your doctor is concerned about and my doctor was never concerned with my running.

I am not too sure why your doctor said that. You have to be smart about the HR because when your HR gets too high it deprives the uterus of blood thus oxygen. I am 18 weeks pregnant with my second pregnancy and I ran though most of my first pregnancy. I ran until 7-8 months when it just became uncomfortable to run. At that point I switched to the elliptical. I do not have any incontinence problems!! I ran 4 day a week on average through the first preg and i am continuing to do the same with the second. I am a Physician Assistant and my husband is a Physician so we researched pregnancy and working out very extensively. In my OB practice there are 7 physicians and none of them EVER said anything about running and incontinence. What they said is incontinence come from the actual delivery when the baby pulling on the bladder. To help alleviate the trauma to the bladder my OB group always caths the mom right before she gives birth. They did for me and I have NEVER had a problem.

I'm definitely well aware of the HR issue and all of that and my doc and I had that conversation very early on. She actually has me go off perceived rate of exertion (from Dr. Clapp's book) rather than heart rate. She said she is just worried about the risk to me of damaging my pelvic floor. Thank you for your information, that is very helpful. That's interesting that the docs in your group said it comes from the delivery, I've never heard that before. I'll ask my doc about that and about the cath right before giving birth. Thank you so much! And congrats to you!

I am currently 32 weeks pregnant with my second child. I ran all the way up to delivery with my first pregnancy with no problems and so far this pregnancy I am still running without an issue. I have slowed my pace but still manage 8 to 10 mile long runs. My doctor is aware and ok with it as I have been doing it through out. The only negatives I have noticed are that my knees tend to get a bit sore on longer runs with the extra weight. You may want a second opinion from another doctor.

I'll be 30 weeks this Saturday and I am still running, although I might now call it jogging instead of running..lol. During my appointments with my midwife I mention that I am still biking, running and swimming and she has no concerns. I've cut back quite a bit on my distance and intensity when biking and running but have managed to keep it relatively the same as pre-pregnancy in the pool.

My longest run these days are 7 kms. I too go by "percieved rate of exertion" instead of heart rate - mostly because I find wearing a HR monitor too much like "training" and really I'm just trying to get out for a relaxing jog.

What I have noticed about working out and being pregnant is that it takes my body longer to warm up then pre-pregnancy. This is especially evident at a 5:30 am swim practice. I'm so slow in warmup but once the engine is warm I'm back on pace. As I get farther and farther along in my pregnacy I'm more and more grateful for being able to continue to be active. That being said, when my husband rolled in after 230 km on the bike on Sunday, after my measly 30 km ride, I was pretty envious. I do miss the endurance training ;) Funny enough I mentioned this to my husband and he said that once the baby is born we'll be surrounded by family for the first month or two so I will be able to take some time away from the baby and go for a ride.....I looked at him and asked if he really thought I'd be able to sit on my bike after giving birth! Its our first so I don't really know what to expect but biking one month post delivery I expect would be unusual?!

I would personally trust info I get from my doctor over info I get on an anonymous board. I would recommend getting a second opinion or asking your doctor for more info but thats just my personal preference. Every doctor has his or her biases and opinions, many of which are not evidence-based as someone pointed out. They may be based on experience or on emotions. Try to ask why she feels there is increased risk of incontinence with running. Did he/she have patients this happened to before? Or did he/she attend a talk or read an article? Or is it because of the anatomy and where organs are in relationship to each other?

Best of luck with your pregnancy! I will drink to an easy rest of your pregnancy, a short uneventful labor and delivery, a healthy child, and a rapid return to running and all other activity at full speed!!! And a child that sleeps through the night soon!!!!

I ran through my entire pregnancy with my second daughter. Literally up until 4 days before she was born. This was in 1988 - before heartrate monitors and such. I ran according to how I felt and shortened my distance as I got bigger and more cumbersome. My daughter is 21 years old now. I still run/bike/swim and have no issues with incontinence at all.

---

Nor do I use punctuation in the way a child sprinkles glitter over a ribbon of glue on construction paper - Trash Talk

I work for a university hospital where the pelvic floor program has really taken off, and many patients were former pregnancy runners. Each of us are built differently, and your doctor may "see" something to ask you to dramatically decrease your running. Listen to your doctor, and ask him/her the questions. Thanks for bringing this type of awareness to the board.

In response to your post and some of the others here goes. My doc said a lot of the urologist she works with are seeing more and more cases of women who run throughout their pregnancy have incontinence after pregnancy. In regards to me, she just has the concern, but has ultimately left the decision up to me. What concerns her is that sometimes after running, especially now that I'm 26 weeks along, I get some soreness down there and it is more like muscle soreness and achiness. She said that concerns her in the sense that she believes that could be my pelvic floor getting damages by the impact. I discussed with her Dr. James Clapp's studies that have shown that women who workout throughout pregnancy have lower incidences of incontinence, but she informed me that while she agrees with Dr. Clapp on quite a bit in regards to working out during pregnancy, the running stuff she disagrees with because new studies have shown the increased risk of incontinence. She said that I wouldn't be harming the baby or the pregnancy, the main risk is doing damage to myself and damaging the pelvic floor. I asked her whether they are seeing more incidences of it because more women talk about it now v. before or whether they truly believe that it is linked to running and impact type stuff during pregnancy. She said the jury is still out on that and that it is true that women now talk more to their doctors about things more openly than before, so that might be part of it. Ultimately she left the decision in my hands, but she said she just has the concern because of the discomfort I feel sometimes. It is weird though, it isn't a pain or it isn't a normal feeling, it is kind of just a weird muscular thing down there. I think also her concern is that my baby is measuring big (over 75th percentile at our level 2 at 20 weeks) and my family traditionally has big babies, despite the women in my family not being big and not having any issues with gestational diabetes. So, I think she is just concerned about the weight on the pelvic floor while running. She hasn't limited cycling or swimming or any other workouts, just the running is what concerns her because of the impact. I did try to convince her that I'm very light on my feet while running, but she and my husband didn't find that all that amusing! Ha-ha!

What have your university studies shown thus far? I would be interested in hearing more about it.

Thanks for sharing with us this information from your Dr. It sounds like your Dr. is thoughtful and is looking out for you even though she is saying something you may not want to hear, at least you can make a choice about whether or not you want to keep running. I am 20 weeks pregnant and quit running early on because I was so sick in early pregnancy. I've had ligament pain since early on too so I've had to minimize impact exercise. I do aqua jog and find I really enjoy it, as long as I have a friend along to keep me company.

The one thing I've learned about pregnancy is that every woman is different and what is normal for one isn't for another. Make the choice that makes sense for you. If you feel good about running, then do it! Just because other women are incontinent doesn't mean you will be. If you aren't so sure about it, save if for post-pregnancy, you have the rest of your life to run. Best wishes to you and I hope all is well with you.

I've been meaning to try the aqua jogging. I think the struggle I've had with cutting back my running is more the mental fix I get from it. Running is my time to check out, not have to worry about work or anything else and just kind of have me time. Plus, now that the weather is FINALLY getting nice where I live, it is practically torture for me to be inside at the gym! However, it is well worth it and I know any sacrafice or complaints I have now will be quickly forgotten when this baby arrives in September!

Best of luck to you. I agree that it seems like every pregnancy is different for every woman and that is something important to remember.

I will look into getting you some patient materials on this subject at work next week. We may have to exchange emails.
I work with Lily Arya, MD and Dan Eun, MD (Urogynecology & Pelvic Reconstruction). Lily wrote an article on "Urinary Incontinence in Women" for American College of Physicians, if you want to research it in the meantime.
Hope this helps for now.

If you have to cut out running for now and pick up more swim workouts, just imagine the big picture... those post pregnancy runs will feel soo good (and Healthy)!

Does anyone have any advise on when it is advisable to start running after birth? I heard from a friend of mine who runs that if you are nursing, the lactic acid is not good for the baby. (btw this is a GREAT forum and all the comments and advise has been great!)

Nonsense. Drink pleanty of water. I started running 10 days after giving birth, make sure you do your core work though!

---

__________________________________________________
Twitter: @jayasports
Web: http://www.jayasports.com

I've been told that you need to wait until you completely stop bleeding after birth. The general rule of thumb is 6 weeks, but I've been told that I can start back slowly before then as long as I have stopped bleeding. If you start bleeding again while running or after a workout, then your body is telling you that you over did it and you need to back off. That's what I've been told, but since I'm due with my first in 3 weeks I don't have any first hand experience!

I went for my first post birth "jog" yesterday, 14 weeks post baby exiting the body. I have to say, it felt really good to jog 5 minutes/walk 1 minute repeat 3 times! I started hiking 3 weeks post baby and have gone on walks pretty consistently since 2 weeks, hiking at least once a week since then also. Running/jogging was the last thing my "parts" wanted to do (and I'm just starting to think about getting my bike out of the garage)... My pubic bone would get sore if I over did it (even walking) and thankfully that has finally gone away.

Whenever you start back up - do it slowly, and listen to your body. It will tell you if your doing too much too soon!

This has nothing to do with running, but before you have the baby (if vaginal delivery), make some "croch pops" for the house. Basically get some sanitary pads wet and freeze them. The hospital gives them to all new moms, and we had a supply ready for coming home. And if your not too proud - buy yourself a pack of Depends (trust me). Then you can put the croch pop in the "mommy diaper" and you don't have to worry about it leaking all over the place (another trick the hospital turned me on too...). These actually came in very handy for the first month or so - since I would over due it and the pubic pain would lay me out for a while.

Have fun with the little one! They are awesome!!

---

**********************
Harry: "I expected the Rocky Mountains to be a little rockier than this."
Loyd: "I was thinking the same thing. That John Denver's full of shit, man."