Pregnant woman defends strenuous CrossFit workouts days before delivery

A mom is stirring up a firestorm for doing intense CrossFit workouts until just days before her baby was born.

Zuleima Ramirez was nine months pregnant and still doing a grueling CrossFit workout, including strenuous lifting and push-ups while standing on her head.

She started doing CrossFit two years ago and when she became pregnant with her second child she saw no reason to quit.

"My doctor always said being pregnant is not being sick," Ramirez said.

In fact, the only real change she made was dropping the amount of weight she was lifting -- from 65 pounds to 50 pounds -- and maintaining that throughout the pregnancy.

Ramirez said she worked closely with a trainer and when she showed her doctor videos of her workout, she was assured it was safe to continue.

"For women who are at this level of physical fitness before pregnancy, you know, they can listen to their bodies and safely continue to work out at that level throughout their entire pregnancy under the supervision of their health provider," ABC News senior medical contributor Dr. Jennifer Ashton said.

Ramirez suffered terrible morning sickness during her first pregnancy, but says she felt wonderful during this one and she continued her CrossFit routine until four days before she delivered.

"With this one, I didn't feel like I was pregnant. I was so normal," she said. "I did everything I always do."

Another benefit of her CrossFit workouts? During her first pregnancy she gained 30 pounds, average for a one-baby pregnancy. But this time, she only gained 16 pounds.

"I like to say, pregnancy is an athletic event, you have to train for it," said Ashton. "It's very strenuous physically as well as emotionally, so I think the better shape a woman is going into her pregnancy, the better she'll feel."

Ramirez delivered a healthy baby boy two weeks ago and plans to be back to her CrossFit routine in just a few more weeks.