Chandigarh, May 19
Taking cue from the western concept of antenatal group exercises, a city-based private nursing home has started with first group-exercise sessions for pregnant women to facilitate easy delivery and educate the mothers-to-be on how best to handle the big change in their lives.

The sessions held on weekends at Hope Clinic, Sector 21, are being offered free of cost to pregnant women. But it is not this factor which seems to be pulling women to these sessions. All women who have joined the first set of classes are finding it beneficial to attend these sessions.

The key to an easy delivery is proper exercise and keeping fit during the nine months of pregnancy, advise doctors and some amount of systematic physical activity is prescribed for women for these months. Every pregnant woman is told that she should be doing some routine but systematic physical movements in order to keep herself fit for the delivery day since it takes a large amount of effort and physical energy to undergo a delivery. ‘‘Most women after their delivery feel that they have been drained of energy and are unable to recover as soon as is normally possible simply because the body is not in shape to bear the effort. Ideally woman should be strong and be in the peak of her muscular fitness just before delivery so that she is left with sufficient energy levels to start caring for the child immediately.’’ says Dr Kamna Nagpal of Hope Clinic.

Apart from this, the women who exercise during pregnancy are also able to retain their normal fitness unlike women who simply sit or lie through the nine months. Many women are also attracted to exercises since they are able to regain their figures soon after their deliveries.

The clinic is also focussing on providing information to these women about labour and the child birth process. ‘‘It is surprising that in this age, there are women who still have very little idea of what to expect during labour and this unpreparedness leads to actual medical complications. The poor husband is also unaware of all that is happening to his wife and feels helpless. All this is taken care of at these sessions.’’ says Dr Kamna.

The antenatal classes will also be teaching the mothers to cope with the new baby, baby care and feeding. Slide presentation showing week by week growth of the foetus, labour and delivery process is also a part of these sessions.

One of the important aspects being dealt with at these sessions is pain relief during labour and how certain exercises can take care of the pain to a large extent. ‘‘We are going to tell these women how to look for signs of labour, what is false labour and what are the danger signs in a pregnancy. A dietician will take care of their nutrition during pregnancy and a trained physical therapists will take care of the exercise past.’’ says Dr Kamna.

Chandigarh, May 19
A superb knock of 97 runs by Jagmohan Kapoor helped his team Haryana Power Sports Group (HPSG), clinch the first Udyog Cup by defeating the Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation (HSIDC) by four wickets in the final played at the JR Institute of Cricket Technology, Barwala, 18 km from here, today. The tournament was organised by the HSIDC Employees Welfare Association.

Jagmohan was declared the best batsman, and Antar Atam Singh the best bowler, while Narender Sharma was declared the best all-rounder. Mr Randhir Singh, general manager, HSIDC, gave away the prizes.

Brief scores: HSIDC: 225 runs for seven in 35 overs (Narender Sharma 83, Sanjeev Kumar 34, Dilbagh Dahiya 31 n.o.,Vijay Godara 29, Rajiv Anand 2 for 24, Antar Atam Singh 2 for 33).