Here is our guide to helping you find a personal trainer with the qualifications and experience you should expect.
The most obvious place to find a personal trainer is your local gym or health club, which will require you to join that club as well, if you don't want to do this then there are personal trainers that will come to your home, finding one of these may require a little more investigation, ask friends first as recommendations are always more reliable than the personal trainers sales pitch.
Ask your doctors surgery or look for your local natal class providers as they may have a recommended personal trainer with the necessary experience. Failing this and as a last resort there are many websites out there with directories of personal trainers, that will allow you to search by postcode or town - this should obviously be a last resort though as you have nothing to go on
All qualified and reputable personal trainers should be a member of REPs (Register of Exercise Professionals) at Level 3, so check to see if the trainer you are interested in is registered, this can be done on the REPs website.
To gain the necessary qualifications to become a personal trainer you have to study natal exercise and so should mean that anyone registered at level 3 of REPs has the necessary knowledge, there are also additional courses that delve further into exercise prescription for the pregnant and so finding someone with additional qualifications would be advantageous.
To gain registration with REPs, the personal trainer must have valid insurance cover, there is however no guarantee that this is still valid at the time of your enquiry so you should ask to see their certificate, if they have valid insurance they shouldn't have a problem showing you, if they do - alarm bells should ring!