training and pregnancy

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[wayback]

No, I'm not, before everyone congratulates me.....

I have heard good "I could train until x month, but not roll after x month" stories and bad "I miscarried".....

I wondered what insights people (women in particular) have on this. I would like to continue to train if/when I get pregnant, but understand that the body may not necessarily be up to aikido with a child on the way.

I imagine doing technique in slow motion would work for quite awhile but breakfalls, and eventually rolls and pins will be out of the question.

any safety considerations that anyone can think of / has experienced?

Thanks in advance (I'm not planning anything, but it's good to think about this one well before hand!)

Sharon

[Simone]

Hi Sharon!

That's just what I have asked myself, just in case I would become pregnant one day.....

Where I train we have two women being pregnant, and they train whatever they feel they could do. O.K., no breakfalls and rolling is not possible too long, but I think there is no ''stop that after x month''. Beeing uke is not possible in the last few months, but they always where good tori, very good. They say we have the power of two, and it feels like that, especially if you do kokyu ho in saho with them!

I'm very impressed and convinced that pregnancy will not be the end of my Aikido for months.

Hope that helps, yours

Simone

[Shipley]

I can offer my wife's perspective (she's too busy with the twins to write a reply :). She was able to train fairly normally through the fifth month, and in a limited fashion through the sixth month, and able to roll the whole time. She was bearing twins, so was growing somewhat faster than if she'd had a singleton. She quit training when rolls became hard (she couldn't see her feet well enough to place her hand easily). For most of the pregnancy she could not take pins, too much pressure on the diaphram to breathe easily, but the throw up until that point was fine. She, of course, did not take breakfalls at all during the pregnancy. I hope that this is informative, and sorry that it is second hand.

Paul Shipley

[BC]

There is a woman training in our dojo who is pregnant and due in January. She definitely doesn't do any breakfalls, and doesn't push herself too hard during class, but is definitely still training. And she isn't going to class every day like she used to (hey, she gets understandably tired), but now watches class alot and helps at the front desk. One thing she does do when bowing in with new partners is to inform them, if they don't already know, that she is pregnant and so needs to practice at a more moderate pace, giving them the option to find another partner if they aren't comfortable with that. I believe she intends to continue training at least into her eighth month, and she's had no complications so far.

[Magma]

Just for the record, I am male. (So, for the layperson, that means I'll never get pregnant).

Can I say that I would be terrified to work with a pregnant woman? Is that allowed? I don't know why, but I just know that's the way that it would be. To think that I would have something to do with maybe jeapardizing that pregnancy would be unbearable for me.

I would be terrified of my wife (I am unmarried now, but at some time in the future) continuing to train very far into her pregnancy.

I would be terrified if I owned a dojo and a student came to me and told me that she was pregnant but intended to keep training.

Now don't get me wrong, this is not a sexist thing - read my remarks in the thread "Training With Women" a couple months gone now. I train with women the same that a train with men. But a pregnant woman is something completely different. I'm not saying that they don't have the right to train - I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying for my first fear (training with a pregnant woman), forgive me if I'm not up to training with you. For my second fear (my wife training) that is between her and me. And for my third (owning a dojo), hmmm, between now and that time I'll have to get more information, but you can be absolutely sure that there would be waivers signed at the time the student signed up which would cover this eventuality.

But I'd still be terrified.
:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

-Tim

[ansei]

Magma wrote:

And for my third (owning a dojo), hmmm, between now and that time I'll have to get more information, but you can be absolutely sure that there would be waivers signed at the time the student signed up which would cover this eventuality.

-Tim [/B]

With all due respect Tim, don't put too much stock in "waivers....which would cover this eventuality."

In general, while asking people to sign such waivers may send the lawsuit-minded packing, and cue the cautious to appropriate modification of their own behavior, one can't sign away the right to sue.

Fred "already checked this one with his brother-in-law the attorney" Little

[sulzwulf]

Hi, I've visited several time over the past months but not registered until now.
The training/pregnancy question is one I once raised with my sensei, even though I have no immediate plans in that direction either!
The reply was that you do what you can do and are always welcome at training, even if just watching (through which you can learn much).
The dojo where I discovered aikido is Ki Aikido style.(I'm still trying to sort out the subtlties of the whole styles thing).
Several months later (I am still very new to aikido) I can now imagine that one could participate fully in Ki training, if not techniques and weapons right through a pregnancy.
Perhaps this would not be the case for other styles of aikido?
I enjoy the site and the discussion.
Sally

[crystalwizard]

my grandma was a farmers wife and worked every day at hard, strenuous labor right up till she went into labor with all 13 of her kids. and was back up on her feet a day AFTER the baby was born.
That's many many years ago...
coming down to today, women who are active before and stay active during, unless they have some fairly rare physical problem not only dont lose the baby but also have much reduced pain during labor, shorter labor and recover faster.

course some women can't lift their arms over their head without the risk of starting premature labor but that's incredibly rare.

The only thing I'd suggest if someone's really worried about it is to limit ukemi to what's comfortable. maybe just back rolls...stay away from break falls..but in most cases it shouldn't be necessary to stop practicing.