5 Exercises to Prepare Your Body for Labor
Five specific exercises can help you prepare for labor and they only take a few minutes every day to do. Read on to learn about the benefits they provide and how to do each one.
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When I transferred my prenatal care from an OBGYN to a midwife, one of the unexpected changes was the daily exercises and stretches my midwife recommended.
As part of The Bradley Method, which she taught, women are encouraged to prepare for labor by doing simple daily exercises. (These aren’t exclusive to The Bradley Method; they are widely recommended by medical professionals and pregnancy experts.)
Why These Exercises Matter
Giving birth requires strength and flexibility, particularly in your legs and hips. It also requires your pelvic floor to be able to relax.
The five exercises covered in this post focus on strengthening, toning, and stretching key muscles to help prepare your body for labor.
Strength builds endurance for labor and helps you maintain helpful positions, while flexibility makes it easier to move and reduces the risk of more severe tears by helping muscles stretch.
Any prenatal exercise for your legs, core, and pelvic floor are beneficial, but these five exercises are especially helpful when time or energy is limited and you want to hit key muscle groups.
5 Exercises to Prepare Your Body for Labor
The most commonly recommended exercises for late pregnancy are:
- Squats
- Kegels
- Pelvic Tilts
- Butterfly Pose (Cobbler’s Pose)
- Walking
Each takes just a minute or two (except walking). Let’s dive into why each is helpful for pregnancy and birth.
Squats
Squatting is a natural position that we don’t do much in our modern lives. But our joints need regular movement. And pregnancy only adds extra pressure on the hips and pelvis.
Practicing squats strengthens and stretches important muscles, prepares the perineum for birth, and can relieve lower back strain. Squatting during labor can also increase the width of the opening of the pelvis and reduce labor length by leveraging gravity.
How to Squat for Labor Prep
Most pregnancy experts recommend deep squats (like a yogi squat), which strengthen your legs, tone your core, and length the pelvic floor.
Aim to hold a deep squat for 1–2 minutes a day, total. You can break it up into shorter intervals if you need to. (Doing four 30-second squats counts!)
You can also incorporate squats into everyday tasks. Picking up your toddler? Squat then stand back up. Unloading the dishwasher? Squat every time you get a new dish out. Cleaning the floor, getting something off a low shelf, or moving a box? Squat, squat, squat!
Kegels
These exercises are named after American gynecologist Arnold Kegel who published a study in 1948 showing that strengthening the pelvic floor muscles improved incontinence.
The pelvic floor muscles are the base of your core. They are like a hammock that spans from your pubic bone back to your spine. These muscles are what give you the ability to stop the flow of urine. They also play a role in sexual satisfaction.
Your pelvic floor muscles have two roles in labor: 1) to provide a strong base for your baby to slide along as he or she moves through your vagina and 2) to relax and allow your baby’s head to stretch your perineum.
Stretches like squats help to lengthen and relax the pelvic floor. Kegels help with strength.
How to Do Kegels for Labor Prep
If you’ve never done a kegel, give it a try now. Sit up straight, with your weight in your sitz bones and your pelvis tilted slightly forward (not reclining).
Imagine you are urinating but want to stop the flow. Clench the muscles around your urethra, vagina, and anus. Keep one hand on your glute and the other on your inner thigh—those are different muscles and shouldn’t be moving.
If you’re having trouble identifying your pelvic floor, try coughing. The slight flick you feel at the base of your pelvis around those openings is your pelvic floor.
If you find it difficult to feel the contraction, it may just take some practice to become aware of those muscles. It could also mean that your pelvic floor is too tight, in which case you may not need to do kegels but stretches.
Each time you do a kegel, fully contract your pelvic floor muscles and fully relax them. You can do them fast or slow. If your body responds well to kegels, aim to do 3–5 sets of 10 each per day.
Pelvic Tilts
Pelvic tilts are one of the best ways to ease lower back pain, a common struggle for many pregnant women. They also engage your core and keep your spine mobile to support your growing belly and maintain alignment.
How to Do Pelvic Tilts for Labor Prep
To do a pelvic tilt:
- Begin on your hands and knees, with your shoulders over your wrists and hips over your knees.
- Start with a neutral spine; avoid arching your back too much to prevent excess pressure on your abdomen.
- Gently engage your core to support your back and keep your belly from hanging down.
- Inhale in this position, then exhale as you pull your abs in and round your back toward the ceiling, naturally tilting your pelvis upward.
- Hold for a few seconds, then inhale to return to a neutral position.
You can also do pelvic tilts standing up or sitting on an exercise ball. The goal is gentle movement of your hips and spine, keeping gravity pulling your baby into your belly and not back toward your spine.
You can do pelvic tilts as often as you like but try to do at least 10–20 pelvic tilts 2–3 times per day.
Butterfly (Cobbler’s Pose)
The butterfly pose—also called cobbler’s pose—is excellent for relaxing your pelvic floor and improving hip and pelvic flexibility, both of which are crucial during labor.
How to Do Butterfly Pose for Labor Prep
- Sit on the ground with the soles of your feet pressed together and knees falling to the sides.
- Consciously relax your leg muscles and pelvic floor to allow them to lengthen.
- Hold this position for several breaths.
Walking
Finally, walking regularly is a great way to prepare your body for labor. Walking can strengthen your leg muscles. It also helps you develop stamina so labor doesn’t wear you out too fast.
Walking during the last trimester of pregnancy is especially good for helping your baby get into a good position for birth.
Additionally, walking during pregnancy can reduce your risk of complications (like gestational diabetes and preeclampsia) and labor interventions (like induction and c-section).
As a bonus, any prolonged exercise can boost your mental health as well as your physical.
Though any walking is good (even the walking you do in the grocery store and around your house), brisk walking is best. Try to walk fast enough that your heart is beating faster than it normally does.
If you are healthy, you can walk as much as feels good to you. Just avoid spending too much time in the heat and make sure you bring water!
Conclusion: Your Body is Amazing
There you have it—five simple exercises to prepare for labor and make things a little easier on yourself.
Squat regularly to stretch and strengthen your legs and prepare your perineum for birth.
Practice kegels to tone your pelvic floor.
Do pelvic tilts to encourage mobility and relieve tension.
Improve flexibility with butterfly pose.
And don’t forget to walk, walk, walk!
Through it all, with these and other types of movement, remember to be grateful for your body, have compassion for yourself amidst all the changes, and keep marveling at the miracle of creating life that is happening inside of you.
Until next time,
Allison
READ MORE:
The Best At-Home Pregnancy Workouts
10 Ways Prenatal Exercise Benefits Your Baby
