Any woman who has given birth understands the physical demands of the event. It is a long, exhausting and demanding exercise in physical endurance. But what if you prepared for the blessed event by training for it as you would for a marathon, with an understanding of the physical demands it would take on your body? How would that improve your delivery?

Patti Brown, a mother of four from Beachwood, N.J., believes her prenatal preparations helped her have all four births without pain medication, something she and her husband were hoping for.

"We did prenatal exercises regularly," says Brown. "My husband did them with me every night. Not only did we do breathing, but [we did] stretching of the arms, abs and legs and, best of all, squats! My husband hated these but in the end could squat longer than me!"

Brown even did abdomen strengthening exercises.

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