Pilates is an innovative system of mind-body exercise evolved from the principles of Joseph Pilates. It dramatically transforms the way your body looks, feels and performs. It builds strength without excess bulk, creating a sleek, toned body with slender thighs and a flat tummy. It teaches body awareness, good posture and easy, graceful movement. Pilates improves flexibility, agility and economy of motion. It can even help alleviate back pain.

Professional dancers have known the benefits of Pilates for decades. Top athletes use it for strength, flexibility, and injury prevention. Hollywood celebrities and supermodels use it to maintain beautiful physiques. So, it makes perfect sense that it is rapidly becoming the most effective form of exercise for women to do when they are pregnant.

The reasons why, are simple. Pilates is the only one that specifically targets the areas that continually change before, during and after pregnancy. The most obvious being an expanding tummy and bigger boobs – both of which can cause lower back ache and in turn affect your posture and of course, not forgetting the pelvic floor!

It is suitable for anyone at any fitness level and as long as you are doing it correctly, it’s 100% safe. As with any form of exercise, there are some medical reasons why you might not be able to do it, so it’s best to get clearance from a doctor first.

I’m a 32 year old everyday mum of two kids (4 and 2) with a passion for wellbeing and exercise just trying to create a balanced life. Along my road to discovery, I fell upon pilates roughly 8 years ago.

I will never forget the day I realized just how beneficial pilates is for pregnant women. I had been training a woman for her nine month term and at the end of a drug-free, 18 hour labour, she managed to give birth naturally to a baby girl born posterior. Midwives believed pilates had made it possible to avoid intervention. That baby girl was my daughter.

Over the years of working with pregnant women, I realised that there weren’t any pilates for pregnancy dvds on the market that featured a pregnant instructor. So when I fell pregnant with my second child, I decided to make the most of my situation and filmed four separate trimester specific pilates workouts. These dvds are now available for sale on my website: www.pregalates.com

It is my dream to make pilates a regular part of every pregnant woman’s preparation for birth and their ongoing recovery. I want to promote its benefits to as wide an audience as possible. Pregnancy can be unnerving for even the strongest of people –with pilates you have time to be kind to yourself and your baby and put a level of control back into your life.

The best choice of Pilates class is one specifically for pregnancy. A dedicated class will avoid unsuitable moves, target specific areas relating to the childbearing period and provide a social opportunity to meet other mothers. To find an instructor qualified to teach for pregnancy look at: