What exercise should I do so I can shoot a baby out of my hoo-hah as efficiently as possible?

Disclaimers! One: I obviously have not given birth yet, so cannot speak to the actual experience of how it felt in my be-strengthened body. I’m trying to get the best answers I can before the fact. Two, and this will go for a lot of this pregnancy content: A huge reason that people avoid giving advice to pregnant women is that they are especially wary of causing harm to an unborn fetus. This information is for educational purposes only; presumes an otherwise uncomplicated, medical-issue-free parent and baby; and further presumes you will not take any action without the consultation of your own personal medical professional. No one is to arrive at at the hospital in an injured state saying, “But Casey said.”

The Question

I see so much about how prenatal yoga/Pilates can help labor. But have you seen evidence strength training has a positive impact there too?

-Haley

Is there anything you can do in the gym to make actual labour easier? Or any work/training you can do to best prepare yourself for pregnancy before you even conceive? I don’t plan to have a baby for a few more years but have always been super curious, especially as more women around me are becoming mothers.

-Anon

The Answer

Whether lifting would help with labor has long been something I was incredibly eager to know, for two reasons. One: I collect reasons that lifting is objectively good, and even superior to other forms of exercise, like a magpie collects shiny objects. I hate when we are steered away from good things by shame-y marketing about what women should or shouldn't do. Two: I have never had any impression that giving birth was going to be “a beautiful experience to cherish,” or whatever. It was going to be a task (with some good and some bad parts!), the onerousness of which would only be somewhat within my control.

So to the extent that any of the physical part might be within my control based on preparation, what could or should I do?

First: What is pushing anyway? Again, who am I to say? But most resources indicate it is a pelvic floor relaxation combined with a transverse abdominis contraction. Oh boy, what even are those? Don’t worry, we will get to more of that in a second.

To begin with, we can definitively say that being a physically active person helps with labor. There are multiple studies to this effect[^1]. You could probably guess most of the reasons why: Giving birth is a physical effort, and if you work out, you are practiced at physical effort; exercise tends to beget more energy and less general physical discomfort, which are assets when you have to be awake for potentially days (the pushing part is minutes to hours, but contractions can start more than a day in advance and keep you up all night); exercise generally means you are less prone to health issues like high blood pressure or complications from diabetes, which can prevent labor from progressing uncomplicatedly. Even before you get to labor, exercise reduces the potential for urinary incontinence, back pain, difficulty coping with additional breast or uterus weight, not to mention the mental/psychological benefits.[^2]

So whatever you do, if you already exercise regularly, you’re getting an edge. Yes, fine. But is there, I wanted to know, an even greater possible edge to be had from particular forms of exercise? Should I even be, gasp, quitting lifting in favor of the famously core-centric yoga or Pilates?