Eleven years after having her first child, Kahssia Hills-Days reflects on being a mom.

“It’s all been one long ongoing learning experience," she said.

Hills-Days had her first child as a 19-year-old living on the south side of Syracuse. As she was thrown into the fire of adulthood, her experiences have shaped her into the woman she is today.

“It was just me figuring out how to be a parent, how to be a mother, and how to survive for both myself and my child, and I finally feel like I got the hang of it and now it’s so uplifting," said Hills-Days.

Now she’s taking control of her current pregnancy by doing things that can benefit her, like a fitness class called Boxing for Birthing Bodies.

“What I’m doing it is for just the increased cardio of it all," she said. "Any pregnant person knows that you get out of breath very, very easily, so anything I can do to kinda increase my lung capacity, increase my ability to breathe is [an] added benefit."

According to the website Momjunction, boxing builds bone strength, increases cardiovascular fitness and provides stress relief for pregnant women.

“When people are pregnant, they have more fluid in their bodies," said Sequoia Kemp, a full spectrum doula and one of the people that started the class on Syracuse's Southside. "That means that sometimes the heart has to work a little harder to get that fluid circulated through the body. So when you are raising your heart rate, that’s helping your heart get used to being able to work at that load."

“Boxing is a full body workout, so most folks think you’re just using your shoulders and using your arms, but you’re bracing your core, you’re keeping your knees bent, you’re engaging your quads, you’re engaging your glutes," said Easton Davis, the class instructor.

As she feels the benefits, Hills-Days is trying to get more women involved.

“Amplify the communications around it," she said. "Amplify the marketing around it within my personal network, my personal family and friends and let them know that this is available and hopefully that will have a ripple effect throughout the community."