As we often talk about, bodies are never neutral. The act of self-fashioning interacts with assumptions (ours and those we perceive others to have) about race, gender, class, age, family, intellect, and, of course, the complicated matrix of body image, self-esteem and physical ability. My own narrative of health, participation in sports, of testing and retesting my physical limits, and of my body image highs and lows along the way is an important aspect of how I think about dressing myself—even now, at nine(!) months pregnant. While I’m not offering advice of any kind (really! that’s important), I want to start a conversation about some of these topics, which I suspect may become even more important to me as I try to figure out how to dress myself postpartum. As always, if there are specific topics you’d like to see addressed or things you’re curious about, I’d love to know—leave a comment or drop me an e-mail at narrowlytailored at gmail dot com. 

{Image via fortwofitness.com … and certainly not what I look like at 36 weeks pregnant!}

While every woman is different and every pregnancy is different, I’ve felt incredibly fortunate that with a few exceptions, I’ve been able to do some form of exercise almost every day of my pregnancy. The emphasis here is on “some form”: my 100+ mile cycling weeks had tapered off by the time I found out I was pregnant (winter has a way of doing that to you), and while I ran through about 20 weeks, the other day I found myself a little tired after walking what would have been an “easy run” nine months ago. As my pregnancy has progressed, I’ve had to adapt my expectations as to what “counts” as exercise, and really listen to what my body is ready for in that moment (and trust me, there are days where the answer is “not much!”). I’m obviously not running a controlled experiment, but I do think being able to stay active has been important to my physical health, but even more so, it’s been critical to my emotional health.

Of course, like a surprising number of aspects of a pregnant woman’s behavior, prenatal exercise is a subject about which the societal dialogue is, well, pretty weird. (Case in point, this Today show story about “mommyrexia,” featuring clips of pregnant women running to introduce the topic.) And I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that in addition to being incredibly fortunate that my health has enabled me to continue to be active while pregnant, I’ve also been the beneficiary of supportive friends, family members and medical professionals who have understood and encouraged my desire to do so (sometimes to an almost comical degree: at 30 weeks, I told one of the OBs in my practice that my back was stiffening up a little bit, and his first response was, “are you getting enough exercise?”). Totally by chance, I’ve also benefitted from the inspiring examples of a number of real women chronicling their efforts to stay healthy and active while pregnant. In the spirit of paying it forward, here are a few of my favorite resources on prenatal exercise, and some links to my favorite actively pregnant (or recently actively pregnant) bloggers:

Background info…and some warm fuzzies:

• The American College of OB/Gyns’ updated recommendations on prenatal exercise. The ACOG guidelines are a great place to start a conversation with your doctor or midwife, in particular because they’ve changed significantly in recent years.
• Some new research on the benefits of prenatal exercise for baby, as well as mom.
• Runner’s World’s resources on pregnancy and running.
• Fit Pregnancy’s facts and myths about prenatal exercise.

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