Your main focus during the first few weeks should be on rest, not exercise. You have to give your body time to adjust after the birth. If you are breastfeeding your baby, it is a huge physical and emotional demand that will use up lots of your energy.

When Should I Start Exercising?

We can't all be like those celebrities we read about - honed and toned just a few months after childbirth. But you can start taking gentle steps to shape up. And there is one exercise that you should be doing as soon as possible after delivery - the pelvic floor exercises. And the good news is, you can do them at just about any time: when you're breastfeeding, doing the laundry, waiting for a bus... Here are some things you can do:

Pelvic Floor Exercises

• Pull up around the vagina as if to hold in a tampon or to hold on when you need to pee. Hold for a count of four and release. You should feel the difference when you let go.
• Repeat the exercise in batches of six or eight, as often as you can during the day.
• As well as holding for a count of four, try doing some where you squeeze, release, squeeze, release quite quickly.
• Remember to keep breathing normally throughout the movements.

Other gentle exercise suggestions:

Leg Slide

Lie on your back, knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Put your hand in the small of your back, flat against the floor. As you breathe out, let your legs slide slowly forwards, bringing your knees closer to the ground. Then gently slide your legs up again.

Pelvic Rock

Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat on the floor. As you breathe out, rock your pelvis so that the small of your back flattens onto the floor. Then rock your pelvis again so that your back is lifted away from the floor.

When Can I Join A Class?

Six weeks after the birth, when your healthcare professional has checked that you are fully recovered, find out about joining a postnatal exercise class. As well as keeping fit, this is also a really good way of making friends with other new moms.

But take it slowly.

• Start exercising very gently in the first few weeks after the birth.
• Never lie flat on your back and lift both legs in the air during the first few weeks after birth.
• Never lie flat on your back and do sit-ups with your feet held down.
• Check with your healthcare professional at your six week check-up before you try anything more strenuous.

Don't forget that even going up and down stairs to change diapers, or going for walks in the park with your baby still count as exercise!