Across the UK, hundreds of thousands of women enter pregnancy every year, yet only 1 in 4 stay active at recommended levels. That means 419,000 women are missing out on the mental and physical benefits that movement could bring to their pregnancy and early motherhood journey.

This comes down to a few factors:

  • Limited opportunities & practical barriers
  • Low confidence & feeling unsupported
  • Fear & misconceptions about harm
  • Confusing or insufficient information
  • Pelvic floor & abdominal wall issues,
  • Lack of consistent support from professionals

Ultimately the system around them hasn’t always felt safe, confident or connected enough to support them with physically active at such a crucial time in their lives.

At Leap, we’ve been working to change that.

Building Confidence, Changing Conversations

Funded by Buckinghamshire Public Health, we’ve been working in partnership with the Active Pregnancy Foundation to deliver This Mum Moves Ambassador training, designed to change the culture and confidence around pregnancy and exercise for both women and professionals.

Over the past year, we trained 57 new This Mum Moves Ambassadors, with 79% coming from Buckinghamshire’s workforce from midwives and physios to leisure, community and early years teams. By strengthening the knowledge and confidence of those who speak to women every day, we’re shifting the norm around what’s possible during pregnancy and beyond.

Before training, many professionals felt unsure how to advise pregnant women on movement. Afterwards, 95% reported a positive experience, feeling more capable and equipped to support active lifestyles.

The This Mum Moves Ambassadors evaluation revealed inspiring examples of what happens when professionals gain the confidence and tools to act:

  • A local charity reshaped its pregnancy support programme to include physical activity and pelvic floor health guidance.
  • A community provider secured funding to run both pregnancy and mum‑and‑baby activity classes.
  • The Oxford Health Perinatal Team received bespoke Active Medicine training delivered by Leap to strengthen wellbeing conversations in antenatal care.

These are practical, real‑world shifts that directly support pregnant women and new parents.

We now have a Buckinghamshire This Mum Moves Ambassador Network, where professionals come together to share insights, identify gaps, and co‑design better support for women across the county. This network has already influenced the Public Health commissioning of the Lemonade Life digital wellness platform, created to improve maternal wellbeing at scale. This kind of connected system is how long‑term change happens.

What Needs to Happen Next:

Consistent, confident, evidence‑based support to stay active throughout pregnancy and into motherhood is needed. That means more of us across leisure, healthcare, community services and beyond should be holding these conversations, challenging myths, and helping women access the right opportunities.

Our next steps include:

  • Gathering more stories of what’s working
  • Expanding training to new workforce groups, including pelvic health physios across the region.

And we’ll continue championing the message that movement is not only safe, but also transformative.

Click here to read the This Mum Moves’ Ambassador Evaluation.

For more information on the ‘This Mum Moves’ Ambassador training please contact: Layla Ravey – La*********@*****************ov.uk