Intrauterine Programming: What My Army Pregnancy Taught Me About Fetal Fitness
When I was pregnant with my older son, the Army had just begun allowing pregnant women to stay in service. There were no regulations yet, no accommodations, no modified PT standards. If you were in uniform, you did what everyone else did — period. So every morning, I walked two miles to work. During the day, I did chin-ups, sit-ups, push-ups, and formation runs. I took — and passed — a full PT test at nine months pregnant. At the time, no one asked whether this was wise. It was simply what the Army required, and I did it. My son was born on time, healthy, and strong. In fact, he was my healthiest baby. But he was also… different. At just a few months old — when most babies are learning to roll over — he would do chin-ups if I offered him my fingers as a bar. If I held his ankles the way soldiers do for sit-ups, he would perform sit-ups with perfect form. It wasn’t a party trick. It was instinctive, rhythmic, almost familiar to him. (Bit he as definitely the life of every military...