Safe Exercises for Labor Pain & Pregnancy Workout

Question
Hi,
I am 18 weeks pregnent and as adviced by my O/B i am workig out 3-5 days a week my work out includes walking on traidmill with high elevation (speed between 1.4 to 1.8) for half an hour. I want to know if i need to increase or decrease duration or number of days of my work out or i can carry out as such.
Other important thing that i would like to know are the excercises that help to ease and shorten labour pain.I have come accross 5 excercises:-Kegel,Pelvic tilt,Seated Thigh Stretch,Tailor Sitting and Stretching,WAll Squats with Ball . Can i go on with these excercises in rest of my pregnency ..do you know some other excercises also that can help me to ease my labour pain or these are enough??
Thanks a lot in advance

Answer
You can maintain this level of aerobic exercise for about four week or so. As your baby grows and demands more oxygen, you'll find that your level of percieved exertion will rise. When this happens, lower the intensity of your workout accordingly. Always stay in a zone that you percieve as "somewhat difficult" and never exercise to the point of panting.

You can maintain the 3-5 five days for 30 minutes. This will insure that your baby is super healthy. It's the intensity of your workouts that you'll need to adjust.

Fit women who engage in regular moderate level aerobic exercise tend to have shorter, easier labors with fewer complication and interventions. Labor is an endurance event, with an all out sprint at the end, and being in good shape in definitely a big plus.

But there's no guarentees here. Your body will do labor in its' own way in its' own time.

As to the exercises you mention, I like them all except the Tailor Stretching. These types of positions tend to stretch the sacroiliac joint and may cause pelvic instability.

You should also build strength in your deepest abdominal muscle, you Transverse Abdominis (TvA). This muscle is used duing labor to help push the baby out.

On my BeFit-Mom web site, there are two exercises for the TvA that you can safely do throughout pregnancy. Go to: http://www.befitmom.com/strength_training.html and scroll down to the bottom of the page.