From the Author: I live in Southern California and have been country dancing for over 6 years. I have spent countless nights out both line dancing and partner dancing and have traveled around to see firsthand almost all the places on my list. Please comment below! I generally respond quickly!
Congratulations! You are pregnant! But, now you wonder if everything you do is safe for you and your baby. If you are someone who is generally active and you enjoy line dancing, now that you are an expectant mother you may be wondering if you can line dance while pregnant? Always consult with your physician to check your health and ability to do things as normal. If there are concerns, always consult your doctor. But, about line dancing, there’s good news! So, read on…
Line dancing is okay to do while pregnant if you take it easy and listen to your body. Most pregnant mothers need at least two and a half to three hours a week of exercise, or fifteen minutes a day. Just take precautions to prevent slipping and falling. Be careful to prioritize safety when dancing.
Most moves in line dancing consist of leg movements. There are no big jumps, difficult twists, or impossible moves that can cause strain on your body or any potential strain on your baby. No matter what, remember to have fun and keep in mind that there are many benefits to taking time out just to do a little dancing.
Why Line Dance when Pregnant?
Line Dancing is a combination of fun, exercise, and simple steps. It normally takes place with a group of people, however, do not let that stop you from line dancing in the middle of your living room. In most cases, everyone dances in a synchronized fashion to a set of movements to the same beat. Line dancing helps with muscle tone and strength, along with coordination and balance. With its aerobic style, it also helps in lowering the risk for heart disease. Overall, it just makes you feel better. After thinking this through, I have gathered 9 overall reasons or things to think about if you want to do some line dancing while pregnant. If you are in a hurry at least scroll to #8!
If you’re new to line dancing and want to take it up as a form of exercise while pregnant, click here for some tips about learning to line dance!
1. Keeping Fit through Line Dancing
Line dancing is a fun way to keep moving while you’re pregnant. This will help your body stay strong and will also help prevent extra weight gain. Does this mean that the scales will not go up at all? No. You have to remember there is a human growing inside of you. There is a human along with extra water and other factors that will help the numbers grow but it will not be in unhealthy ways.
2. Line Dancing for your Baby’s Benefit
Your baby will benefit from many things in your line dancing adventures. Your baby starts learning and familiarizing him or herself with sounds and other stimuli. The sounds of the dance music can stimulate your baby’s brain from inside the womb and assist with brain growth and structure. And line dancing helps reduce stress for you, which in turn reduces stress for your baby. The more you move, the more oxygen and blood flow you and baby can get.
3. Line Dancing’s Effects on Heart Health and Pregnancy
Dancing (and any other exercise) will help better your circulation and heart rate. This is important because your blood is carrying oxygen and blood to you and your baby. Your heart not only starts pumping and working harder, but your body also helps create more blood for you and baby. This way you can keep your blood pumping and help prevent any issues with your heart and blood health.
4. Line Dancing and Lung Health during Pregnancy
Line dancing just as any other exercise helps build healthy lung functionality in order to help deliver oxygen to your baby and get you ready for later pregnancy and labor. You will find yourself short of breath as your baby grows and pushes your organs into your lung space, and you will need to have healthy lung function during labor. Dancing regularly helps you increase your lung capacity so you feel less winded in these instances. The better you can breathe, the better you will feel.
5. Line Dancing, Back Pain and Childbirth
Exercise can help ease back pain, both during pregnancy and during labor. When exercising you will be able to stretch and build your back muscles. Considering your back is the primary, well, the backbone that helps you support your body, it is important to keep these muscles strong.
Also add in the increased work with carrying your baby. Exercising helps not only your heart rate and circulation, but they also release endorphins. The more your body produces endorphins, it is easy to help make that push through to delivery. Exercise can also help lengthen and loosen muscles and help manage your pain better.
There are many other benefits to exercising, and it is even better if it is with a little bit of line dancing. The primary goal is to stay safe (keep reading to see more about this), to get your blood flowing, and to help your body and baby to prepare for that amazing day. Let us not forget that your baby will be listening in as well.
6. Line Dancing and Better Sleep
Line dancing, like any good physical exercise, can really help and lead to getting better sleep at night. Your blood is able to flow through your body quickly and filter through anything that is not helping your body, and your digestive system is doing the same, helping clean your body of any toxins while building muscle and wearing yourself down.
Once you lay down, you should be able to get into a deeper sleep. With all those same benefits, your baby may even benefit from a good night’s sleep right along with you.
7. Line Dancing Helps Build Muscle Strength
Pregnancy and childbirth take a lot of strength from your muscles, especially as your baby grows. The more it grows the more your muscles stretch and if not worked out properly and safely, will weaken. You do not want your muscles to weaken. This will not only cause labor to hurt more but also cause you to be miserable overall and hurt during pregnancy. Exercise (Line dance) to maintain good muscle strength.
This will help with your balance as well. As you build muscle strength, you improve your body’s ability to balance. Better balance is a great preventative of falling which is always a concern when pregnant. But while it does builds balance be sure not to let your dancing be the cause of a fall…
8. Preventing a Fall while Line Dancing when Pregnant
Consider your safety first! While line dancing is safe for you and baby it is important to think about some safety before you start dancing.
Generally, when you’re out at a club or in a class, you don’t see people falling. Hence it is a fairly safe activity for you and your growing baby. But it’s worth saying that it does happen! People can slip and fall simply because dancing is fun and you can just get a little crazy.
It can be tempting in this way, so just be careful! Don’t overextend yourself beyond your ability. Keep it simple, stay in control, and stay on your feet!
As far as footwear goes, generally, I would recommend a good pair of leather-soled boots so you can slide around a bit on the saloon or dance class wood floor. But to be extra careful to stay on your feet, perhaps just stick with some rubber-soled tennis shoes. Click here to see some further suggestions about what to wear for line dancing, including foot-wear.
9. Maintain a Safe Space while Line Dancing
Think about the area where you are line dancing. If you are with a group of people in a public area, make sure the area is safe and secure before moving around. Be mindful of people getting into your personal space. It’s no fun if you’re afraid someone is going to bump your bump.
Also, be careful of random objects on the floor that could risk a fall. If you are home, make sure your furniture is not in the way of your dancing as you could fall and hurt yourself and baby.
10. Remember to Stretch Before Hitting the Dance Floor
No matter how silly it looks; it is very important to stretch before and after doing any strenuous activity. Whether it is line dancing or regular routines, be sure to stretch. Pregnancy makes your joints looser so you are at risk for overdoing it.
Plus, your body does a few dozen other weird things that could result in swollen feet and ankles and cramps. Stretching will remove any lactic acid built up in your muscles and reduce the risk of soreness. You do not want to injure yourself because you did not stretch. Be sure to find out which pregnancy stretch routine best suits you.
Enjoy Dancing with Your Baby!
Take this time to actually enjoy the moment. If you are only planning to have one child, enjoy every second you can. If you are planning on having more than one, then you should know that each one is different and special. You will miss this time, so enjoy line dancing, and enjoy holding your baby close while you get your groove on. These are special memories from a very special time.
