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Low impact exercise, like walking (30–40 minutes, three times a week), yoga (an antenatal class) or swimming (aquanatal classes are good) are all generally safe to do, no matter how unfit you are in everyday life. If you’ve exercised or done certain sports before this pregnancy you should be able to keep going – if it feels good – but DO take the intensity down a notch and again, do set some reasonable parameters with your doctor. Avoid any exercise that is too jerky or has violent impact – such as high-impact aerobics – as this is more likely to strain you.

‘I did spinning up until the last week of my pregnancy,’ says Tiffany Lipelt, a certified health and fitness instructor with a BA in exercise physiology who is also a mother of two children under five, a long distance runner and yoga addict. ‘I have had pregnant women in Tae-bo classes and lifting weights (all have to be modified eventually). It is important to keep your doctor updated and to know that it is not a “results-oriented” work out. It is just to keep you healthy and your mind clear as you get bigger and bigger. Your body and your baby will be your guide – if it doesn’t feel good, it isn’t! It is important to follow basic safety advice, but it is also important to remember that you are an individual and that if you work with your doctor you can come up with a middle ground that suits your exercise needs.’

PELVIC FLOOR EXERCISE | This is one kind of exercise even couch potatoes can excel at. The pelvic floor is the cradle of muscles that keep your bladder and womb in the right place. Pregnancy stretches them. You may leak urine if they are weakened (see Incontinence). What to do: Stopping the flow of urine half way through peeing – or trying to – will help you work out what a pelvic floor exercise feels like. People will tell you different ‘numbers’ of exercises you should do, and it can get confusing. Just do some, as often as you can (about ten times a day is good).

Regularly during your day (at traffic lights, when washing up, waiting to cross the road etc.), tighten your pelvic floor, tighten some more, and then some more, as if going three floors up in a lift. Hold five seconds. Release in the same way. Repeat a few times.

Then do a squeeze, hold for a second, and release. Repeat this a few times (well, about ten times would be ideal).

At first this can be frustrating. You may feel you can’t even find the muscles, let alone twitch them. Don’t give up. Practise. Benefits include your long-term gynaecological health, improved sex life, protection against incontinence and, some say, a strong pelvic floor even helps you push the baby out.