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What's The Protocol For Exercising While Expecting?

Published April 20, 2017 at 1:52 PM EDT
Serena Williams holds up the trophy following her victory over her sister Venus Williams in the women's singles final of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on Jan. 28, 2017. (Paul Crock/AFP/Getty Images)
Serena Williams holds up the trophy following her victory over her sister Venus Williams in the women's singles final of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on Jan. 28, 2017. (Paul Crock/AFP/Getty Images)

Tennis great Serena Williams announced Wednesday that she’s 20 weeks pregnant, which means that she was expecting her first child when she won the Australian Open in January. That made us wonder: How much exercise is safe during pregnancy?

A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that exercising, in most cases, is good for mothers and their babies. But that also leaves some women questioning whether there’s such a thing as too much.

For answers, Here & Now‘s Meghna Chakrabarti talks with Dr. Jessica Shepherd, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Illinois Chicago. Shepherd ( @JShepherd_MD) is also founder of Her Viewpoint, an online forum for women’s health issues.

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