Doctors often advise bed rest during pregnancy. Bed rest usually means limiting physical activities. Although complete bed rest can have negative impact on women’s body. There are often some malpractices in medicine these days, where doctors try to make more money by telling patients to get extra rest, scaring them through tests and then doing a c-section. Therefore, pregnant women should indulge in regular light exercises, unless it is a complicated pregnancy.
Bed rest is suggested in following conditions:
- Vaginal bleeding with placenta
- Possibility of open cervix
- Symptoms of preterm labor
- Carrying twins
- Fetal growth problems
Bed rest for a long time may cause:
- Regret: In some circumstances you regret that why you got pregnant?
Anxiety: Anxiety can cause heart palpitations, breathing problem, sweating, tingling, and chest pain.- Depression: Dreadful thoughts all the night and inability to relax.
- Mood swings: Excessive bed rest is the cause of mood swings. Even small things annoy you to the core.
Increases blood clots: Bed rest can worsen your health, it increases the risk of blood clots which causes insomnia, increases metabolism, bone loss and pain. If you take bed rest for a long time it may harm your muscles. While you are not doing any work, your body muscles get tired and weak; you may face difficulty in babysitting.
In an interview with Dr. Katherine Bolt said,
“Although bed rest or even decreased activity may improve blood flow to the uterus 
and through the placenta to the fetus and reduce exacerbations of high blood pressure, there has been no evidence that bed rest results in any significant improvement in outcomes for the mom or the baby.”
“Strict bed rest may lead to deconditioning, which is especially undesirable in someone who may need to be ready to push for several hours for a vaginal delivery.”
“There’s bone loss and negative psychosocial effects, like time away from work. And this isn’t even considering all the benefits that are missed out on by not exercising during pregnancy.”
