u/Material_Scale7732

heya,

I used to come on this sub when I was pregnant, mainly read the posts and just think yea but HOW??? I could not run for very long whilst pregnant.

For context I have never entered a race or been in a running club or anything - I just kind of run around for about 5k and feel better about life.

Anyway, I had to stop running around because I was throwing up after every run when pregnant (booo). After birth, I slowly started running again after I'd seen a pelvic floor therapist who gave me the all clear. I cannot emphasize this enough; doing my pelvic floor exercises helped with 1) an incredibly fast labour (3 hours lol) and 2) being able to return to running around, I think around 5 months PP.

They are hands down the most boring fucking exercises ever but they have helped me SO much. I didn't have a stratagey to go back to running, I just walked a lot and then one day decided to run for a little bit.

I tried so hard to keep up my fitness in the first trimester despite feeling, fucking awful, because I was convinced it was the right thing to do. If I am lucky enough to get pregnant again this is NOT the approach I will be taking; I'll be doing a bit more listening to my body and a lot less listening to the voice that says 'if you stop doing fitness now, you won't start again' because once my body was ready to go again I just.. could?

Anyway, if you're reading this sub at 3am crying and feeling like you'll never move your body again (me, about a year ago), please know that it does get better!!

Hi everyone,

TLDR; if you feel dreadful on one med, you can change! Feels so obvious but I didn't notice how bad I felt until the change

I had gestational hypertension, pre-eclampsia, and now chronic hypertension (lol). During pregnancy and immediately after I was on labetalol and nifedipine. I was eventually switched to nifedipine only 20mg 2x per day. I am breastfeeding and also under NHS care.

I thought it was kind of fine - no headaches, no sickness, so I soldiered on. Except I was taking the pills an hour apart and still having to lie down in between them because I felt so weird and worried I would faint. I was running, but with this tightness in my chest which I assumed was to do with my fitness. Running was SO TIRING.

I saw a consultant for the chronic hypertension and was prescribed another med and now I feel AMAZING?? I can run just fine, I don't feel like I will faint, it's only one pill. I didn't even get the side effects of this pill (ankle swelling, headache) and I am still breastfeeding. I was so worried I'd get worse side effects I was afraid to ask to change - but I forgot to consider that I might have less side effects / a better life.

So in conclusion - you don't need to be a nifiedipine/ labetalol girlie if it's not working, ask your doctor to help!