Get creative about physical activity (outside the house) when you're caring for a baby

Do you remember a time when you wished you could fit more exercise into your life?

Now that you have a small child (or two, or more), here's your chance! Moving your body as much as possible when you are caring for a baby is important because

• Moving a lot feels good

• Being out of the house and on the move keeps babies dialled down

• Being on the move outside the home can make a big difference (over time) to your family's sleep

• Independently of small children, lots of physical activity improves adult

  • Sleep

  • Mental and emotional wellbeing

  • Immune health

  • Physical health.

From a life-time working as a GP, I've formed the view that each of us, whether we're in the perinatal period or not, needs to expand ways in which we enjoy moving so that we're not really exercising, just delighting in the miracle of being alive and active in our own precious human body. Any serious, goal-oriented fitness and conditioning exercise you decide to layer in on top of a baseline, daily joy of movement becomes a bonus.

I acknowledge that many carers of babies and toddlers live with disabilities. Some may not find this article helpful. For others it may bring up grief. If this is you, you might enjoy the website disABILITY maternity care.

How to move alot when you're caring for a baby

Going for a walk is usually the easiest way to move when you're caring for a tiny person. You can find how to make it easy to get out for a walk (even multiple times a day!) when you have a baby here. You can find what to do when your baby doesn't like the pram here. You can read about babywearing here, and about babywearing safely here. And you can read about not letting the weather stop you here!

Here are other ways women keep moving when caring for a baby.

• Mums and bubs yoga

• Kanga training

• Riding your bike with your baby in a trailer. Having your little one able to see the world around him and feel the fresh air is an important part of this sensory motor experience

• If you need to be at home, turning on your favourite music and dancing sometimes with your little one in your arms, or in the carrier or backpack

• Gardening. This might mean having your baby on a mat on the ground beside you, depending on her age.

• If you're a runner, you might invest in a jogger, which is a stroller designed especially for someone running. But most often at my local parkrun, parents run (or walk) pushing ordinary strollers

• Is there a child-friendly gym near you?

Maybe you could even start a group for other carers with babies yourself, in your local area, to be active together in a way that you enjoy.

A word about the housework

It's true that as a primary carer of a baby, your days are inevitably full of the physicality of bending and lifting and stretching and reaching. Can tidying and cleaning up be reframed as a form of health-giving physicality? Hmmm. Housework does move the body, in a way that sitting in from the computer the way I do, let's say, doesn't.

But babies are often dialled up inside the home, due to the low sensory nature of our interior environments, which worsens sleep. Because of this (and for other reasons too), feeling obliged to perform housework often crushes joy out of the days, making life with a baby or small children quite miserable. That's not good for your sleep, nor for their developing brains, nor for your emotional wellbeing.

Primary carers, so often but not always a woman, need equitable support from their little one's other parent so that domestic tasks are equally shared or responsibly negotiated in the service of their family. If equitable support is not available, then I recommend proudly living in your joyful, messy, unkempt home for a year or so, while you create a life that you enjoy outside the home during the days you are with your baby. Life gets easier and the housework might get done more often once they're bigger. (Or maybe not.) Soon, they'll even be helping you ...

Selected references

Huang H-H, Stubbs B, Chen L-J. The effect of physical activity on sleep disturbance in various populations: a scoping review of randomized clinical trials. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. 2023;20(44):https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-12023-01449-12967.

Wang J, Carru C, Sedda S. Comparative impact of exercise-based interventions for postpartum depression: a Bayesian network meta-analysis. International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics. 2023;00:1-9.

Recommended resources, acknowledgements, and selected references for the articles in the Caring for you section of The Possums Sleep Program are found here, including selected research evaluations of both Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Compassion-focused Therapy in the perinatal period.