Haha, no I didn't ginga through the contractions! But I think staying active throughout pregnancy was a good idea.
I suspected early on that one of the reasons the midwives were so keen to encourage exercise was to avoid excessive weight gain and the problems it causes for pregnant ladies. In the UK, they suggest that by the time you are ready to give birth you will have gained about 10kg. Keeping active and eating heartily, I put on 7kg over all, though that was probably also affected by the oligohydramnios.
Due to the low fluid levels my daughter was delivered by Propess/Syntocinon induction not long before her due date. Being induced meant a lot more monitoring - I was tethered to a machine continuously spitting out graphs. I learned that my resting heart rate was around 60bpm and it stayed low right up until the final half hour of labour. When it came to that last bit I finally got to be in control, pacing myself so I didn't get exhausted too quickly. The drugs may have helped with all that but I like to think the maintenance of cardio capoeira training and conditioning for 8 months played a part too!
The aftermath
It all went well but I was absolutely exhausted for a long time afterwards. "They call it labour for a reason", right!
Three weeks later, I took my daughter to see our group's batizado and - much to my surprise since I certainly couldn't play - I received my fourth cordao.
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