Congratulations on your baby! Regardless of how you were delivered and what your labor was like, now might be the time to rebuild your body's strength and set aside some time for postpartum exercise - so you can cope with life with a little baby.

When it comes to exercising after giving birth, it's important to always start with yourself and not compare with others. Only you know when it feels good to start strengthening your body again after giving birth! But set reasonable goals and be kind to yourself and your body. It has carried your baby and been put under a lot of stress. Trust your body - if a movement doesn't feel right, ask your midwife or physiotherapist for the right help to heal.

Here are some exercises to do during the postpartum period from the team behind YlvaGravid.

Suggestions for exercise after childbirth

Exercises to strengthen the body:

1. Knee exercises
Lie on your back with your hips and feet firmly on the floor. Find the muscles of the pelvic floor by starting to squeeze from the anal opening and slowly lifting forward towards the urethra and up towards the navel. Hold for two seconds and rest for the same amount of time. Try to repeat 5 to 10 times. You can do this several times a day. However, it is good to do the exercise in the morning, as your pelvic floor will be tired from carrying your whole body in the evening.

As you get stronger, you can practice holding the squeeze for a little longer each time, until you can hold five seconds per squeeze and five seconds rest. You can also try doing very short one-second squeezes with a one-second rest between squeezes. As you get stronger, try holding the squeeze for as long as you can - aim for one minute!

When performing these exercises: Vary lying on your stomach or standing on all fours.

2. Find your stomach
Lie on your back with your hips and feet firmly on the floor. Put your hands on your stomach. Breathe out and try to keep your stomach in. Can you press your lower back to the floor? Keep it there. Relax your body. Repeat. Try the same when lying on your stomach or standing on all fours.

3. activate your stomach
Once you feel that you can find the abdominal muscles, you can move on to start activating the stomach.
Lie on your back with your hips and feet firmly on the floor. Tilt your pelvis slightly towards your face. Feel your abdominal muscles activate. Hold for a breath and relax. Repeat 5 to 10 times and feel free to do this exercise a few times a day, or as much as you can.

4. Activate your stomach with leg pushes
Lie on your back and hold your stomach in, thinking you are pressing your tailbone to the floor. Pull your feet up towards your buttocks and slowly push out one leg at a time with your heel on the floor. Repeat alternately.

Please keep practicing hip lift and clam also after childbirth. We describe the exercises in the article on pelvic pain during pregnancy here in the Babyjourney app.

Exercises for your mobility:

With a newborn baby, it is common to experience pain in the upper back, shoulders and shoulders. This is partly due to poor posture when feeding the baby. It is therefore important that you pay attention to your posture when breastfeeding or bottle-feeding, sitting and walking. Stretch, lower your shoulders and maintain a neutral position in your back and neck.

Here we suggest some good mobility exercises to do every day to relieve and prevent pain:

1. Baby cobra against wall
Stand against a wall with your forearms stable against the wall. Come forward with your hips and push off with your forearms. Follow your gaze upwards so that you feel a stretch in your lumbar spine and you feel your shoulder blades contract. Come back slowly. Vary between repeating 10 - 20 times or holding for as long as it feels comfortable.

2. The cat and the cow
Stand on all fours with your hands under your shoulders and your knees under your hips. Exhale and arch your back, relaxing your neck and looking towards your navel. Breathe in and swallow. Lift your eyes and look forward-upwards. Squeeze your shoulder blades together. Come back to neutral position. Repeat 5 to 10 times, preferably several times a day.

Remember - start small and take care of yourself!

More exercises to prevent pain and strengthen your pelvis and back during and after pregnancy can be found in the app YlvaGravid available in the Appstore and Google play.

Here is a video showing how to strengthen your inner cylinder after childbirth.