We understand that many women may feel anxious when it comes to exercising during their pregnancy, even with all of evidence now available to support and promote physical activity during pregnancy and its benefits. The Get Active Questionnaire for Pregnancy (GAQ-P) is a great tool that can help. It's available free to download and women can complete it independently prior to starting or continuing exercise once pregnant. The GAQ-P has been designed to identify the small number of women who need to consult with a healthcare professional before they begin or continue to be physically active, and to help the majority of healthy pregnant women overcome any concerns they may have about getting or staying active. Download the questionnaire, complete it and if anything flags up take it along to your next midwife or healthcare professional appointment.

It depends. Are you healthy and experiencing an uncomplicated pregnancy? If so, you can choose to be active. If you are experiencing complications, or are in any way unsure, then take time to discuss activity with your doctor or midwife. To help you, we've published the Get Active Questionnaire - Pregnancy . The questionnaire is designed to reduce anxiety by helping to identify the small number of women who may have a complication where additional support is needed before undertaking moderate activity. You don't need permission to move, but there are medical conditions where moderate activity is not recommended. Regarding activity after you've had your baby - the same principles apply, although we haven't, as yet, published a Get Active Questionnaire for postnatal women, but we're working on it!

STOP! Pain is the body's way of saying something's not right. Take a moment to assess what activity you're undertaking and consider whether you need to slow down, adapt or stop completely. Many women experience pain during pregnancy and certainly after their baby's birth - this is why we strongly advise adaptations to activity to accommodate changes in the body, and also postnatal recovery. It's important to take time to recover after the birth of your baby and not return to physical activity too quickly. Please take a look at our advice on Postnatal Activity.

When we talk about moderate activity we mean an activity that makes you breathe a little harder - you should be able to talk, but not sing! Everybody's moderate will be a different depending on your base fitness, so it's important not to compare yourself to others.

First things first, don't worry! It's never too late to start. Walking is a simple way to get going - in fact our surveys tell us that it's many women's favourite activity. You may wish to enlist the help of a fitness professional, we strongly recommend that you ensure they have a pregnancy and postnatal qualification. Whatever your choose to do, go gradually. If you're pregnant, you'll need to adapt to your growing bump over time. If you've had your baby, give your body enough time to recover - we say at least 12 weeks - then start slowly and increase over time.

You can achieve your 150 minutes in any way you wish. There are no hard and fast rules because it's an accumulated total over the week. You may want to schedule in 21.4mins a day over 7 days (!) or be a little more flexible. It's entirely up to you. It's important to note that any activity is better than nothing at all, so if you struggle to achieve the minutes then don't sweat it. We all know life can get in the way sometimes.

No. Going for a brisk walk doesn't require any additional kit. If you go to the gym or classes then we do recommended a good quality sports bra. It may be worth keeping an eye on your foot health too, and therefore the shoes you choose. During pregnancy relaxin will increase the flexibility of your ligaments, including those in your feet.

No - your baby is well protected in the womb and running will not 'hurt' the baby. We do recommend that if you run regularly you adapt as your bump grows. Remember to care for your feet too - relaxin will increase the flexibility of the ligaments, even those in the feet. Also, remember to wear a good supportive sports bra, for running and other high impact activities.

Paying for professional help is entirely your choice - we do recommend you ask to see qualifications before hiring anyone. If you're keen to get started on your own, take a look at our Find Your Active guides for expert advice on the most popular activities women love to do - from Aquanatal to Yoga.