It is not much used now, but the term "confinement" in reference to the treatment of a pregnancy is resonant with the idea, still very much in vogue in Taiwan, that pregnant women suffer from an illness and should be prevented from engaging in virtually almost any kind of physical exertion.
In the West, this attitude began to change in the mid-1980s, and Taiwan is now realizing that there is not only a market for pre-natal exercise, but even a medical need. Taiwan Adventist Hospital has been among the first medical organizations in Taiwan to embrace this trend, and has established a number of pre-natal exercise classes over the past two years, the most recent being a spinning class for pregnant women.
In 1985 the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) published its first guidelines for exercise during pregnancy. The guidelines served as a starting point for women who wanted to be physically active during pregnancy and provided advice for the health care professionals who would advise them. These relatively conservative recommendations were updated in 1994 to include, among other things, information for the previously sedentary women who wanted to begin an exercise program during pregnancy.
In real life, many women have long left such guidelines far behind. A quick look at a parental advice forum for Berkley, California revealed comments such as:
"I ran just as much pregnant as I did prior to my pregnancy, 6 days a week, 3-7 miles (4.8km-11.3km)/day. My most recent baby was born about 24 hours after a five-mile (8km) run. Both of my pregnancies went to term and led to healthy 8-pound (3.6kg) babies. And I had great natural deliveries, I think largely due to my confidence and endurance, " wrote one mom, and:
"During my first pregnancy I did intense cardio kickboxing four times a week up until the day before I delivered, " wrote another.
Not everyone needs to go to such extremes, and Chou Hui-cheng (周輝政), director of the Department of Preventative Medicine (預防醫學部) at Adventist Hospital said that doctors have for some time been encouraging pregnant mothers to engage in low-intensity exercise to help ease delivery.
"We find many women (in Taiwan) don't have sufficient physical strength and toward the end of delivery they simply have no strength left. ... It's hardly surprising given the lack of emphasis on exercise in Taiwan," he said. "Hospitals would run classes in breathing techniques and so forth for expecting mothers, but really by that time it is a bit late."
With the completion of the hospital's Exercise Center two years ago, Chou said that he had the opportunity to introduce classes in pre-natal yoga. Yoga was experiencing an upsurge in popularity at that time, and extending it to expectant mothers seemed a natural progression. Since then, the hospital has introduced an Aqua program (water resistance training), and a few month ago added spinning (stationary bicycle riding) classes.
"When new students join our class, the first thing I tell them is that they are doing a great thing. They can help break down traditional ideas that pregnant women must not exert themselves. ... Many women still cannot accept (the idea of exercise during pregnancy)," said Summer Wu (吳薇薇), the hospital's spinning instructor.
Wu said she had been encouraged to teach pre-natal spinning after her own pregnancy, in which she maintained a high level of training. "Of course, I already had the habit of exercise. For over 80 percent of women in Taiwan, they are not engaged in any form of vigorous exercise, so we start out with a very low intensity workout. This is the biggest difference with a conventional spinning class."
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