Stupid question re: lifting while pregnant

melody921

So today, I happened to flip through the little booklet my doc's office gave me on what I can/can't do during pregnancy. I was mainly looking for which meds are OK to take. But I got to the page that says, "Don't lift anything over 25 pounds." My son is 27. Obviously, it's not practical to never lift him. What do you ladies do? Is this just a situation where I shouldn't carry him around for prolonged periods?

NewlyWeds13

I would call your doctor and ask.

I asked my doctor about working out again (with first I did everything until 16 weeks at 16 weeks stopped ab work) and then at 33 weeks stopped running.

This time around, she said, just do what is comfortable.  Since I work out a lot normally, it is perfectly safe to continue lifting as I am so far (knock on wood) having an uncomplicated pregnancy.

if you have placenta previa, pre-term labor, cervical shortening or any other complications, the guidelines are very different obviously.

Call your doctor!!  I am 13 weeks and lift weighs and my son without a problem but my doctor oked it.  

kelbel527

If you have a generally healthy pregnancy, this shouldn't be an issue, based on what my OB told me last week.  I asked the exact same question (DS is 27 lbs too, lol).

His comment was that it is fine and the only real risk (since I don't have any complications) is on injuring myself, not the baby.  Since your muscles loosen and become more limber when you're pregnant, you have a bigger chance of hurting yourself.

I haven't stopped lifting DS, but if DH and I are somewhere and one of us needs to carry him for a little bit, I'll let DH do it.  But otherwise, I still carry him like I used to.  My guess is that it will get harder the bigger I get though!

KoalaBear103

I just carried him-my son was a late walker, so not carrying him was not an option. If DH was around he'd carry him, but a lot of the time it was just me.   Like you said, it's not practical to never lift him.

nosoup4u

I carried my older son on occasion until I was probably 36+ weeks pregnant. He was around 30 pounds at the time. If it bothers you (or brings on contractions when you're further along), don't do it, but I wouldn't worry about it very much. 

kg_08

I think usually they say if it's something you do all the time (like lifting a toddler) it's not that bad... unless they're quite a bit over the limit of course.

themissizz

Agreed with PPs - in a normal pregnancy if you are used to lifting your son, it should be fine. You just may not want to lift much more than his weight. 

This is an extreme analogy, but I was deadlifting 235 lbs when I got pregnant with my son as part of a workout. My OB was okay with me continuing that workout because I'd been lifting for so long. I don't think your OB will have any issues with you lifting your toddler unless you have another complication.