ANYONE WHO FOLLOWS Vogue Williams on social media will know that exercise is a massive part of her life.
Gym selfies and training videos punctuate her Instagram feed, and have continued to do so since the Dubliner announced her pregnancy earlier this year.
And apparently, that’s just not on if the criticism levelled at the 32-year-old is anything to go by.
Appearing on This Morning today, Vogue revealed she had experienced a significant amount of body-shaming in the wake of her pregnancy announcement, with members of the public taking it upon themselves to advise Vogue against her exercise routine.
Speaking to Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, Vogue said she adapted her training regime since becoming pregnant, but hadn’t intended to stop.
As soon as I kept posting training videos when I was pregnant, people were constantly saying ‘You’re putting your baby at risk. You shouldn’t be doing things like that. That’s not the way you should do that.”
Understandably, Vogue, who is in a relationship with Spencer Matthews, was irritated by the running commentary, and questions why women are derided for exercising while pregnant.
Everything I do has been OK’ed by my doctors and OK’ed by my trainers, but people seem to have such an issue with women training when they’re pregnant.
It really bothered me about the training ones because to be told you’re putting your unborn child at risk is really offensive. Unless you’re a doctor you shouldn’t be doling out that advice to anyone, anyway.
Vogue has come to accept that during the nine month journey, she’ll constantly be on the receiving end of unwanted advice.
To be honest, it’s almost anything you do when you’re pregnant. If I put up a picture and there’s a can of Coke in the background – ‘You shouldn’t be drinking that Coke when you’re pregnant’.
Vogue explained that she had been unable to train in the first 15 weeks of pregnancy as she had been unwell, so took the advice of practitioners very seriously when returning to exercise.
Phillip went on to inform viewers that the NHS states that exercise is not dangerous for the baby unless the mother-to-be has been leading a particularly sedentary lifestyle and suddenly embarks on a rigorous exercise routine.
The NHS advice says that exercise is not dangerous for your baby. There is some evidence that active women are less likely to experience problems in later pregnancy and labour. If you weren’t active before you got pregnant don’t suddenly take up exercise.
Holly highlighted the fact that Vogue uses exercise to combat bouts of stress and anxiety, so to face criticism over it can be particularly distressing.
Vogue also revealed that comments regarding the relatively small size of her bump concerned her and ultimately compelled her to visit the doctor who advised her her fear had no grounding in reality.
Take a look at the full interview here.
