First of all, it’s not really a floor. Floors are hard and sturdy, immovable. If it was a “floor” it would be too inflexible to allow a baby to pass through it. It has to be elastic and stretchy. Think of it as a pelvic “hammock.” It’s like a muscle sling that cradles your internal organs and keeps everything in place. During the nine months of pregnancy, you slowly weigh down that sling as your uterus and baby get bigger and heavier. The hormone relaxin makes all your soft tissues more springy and flexible, and that hammock starts to sag under the pressure. Then the big day comes, and the muscles are stretched beyond capacity. It’s amazing that our bodies return to some semblance of normal after this process. There are things you can do throughout your pregnancy that will help prevent damage to your poor pelvic floor.

Four legged mammals do not suffer incontinence or prolapse after birth. Why? Because their pelvic floor is located behind, instead of underneath, the uterus. There is no weight burdening the muscles during pregnancy. The key to saving your pelvic floor is getting the baby’s weight off of it as often as possible. Think like a cow! Get down on all fours throughout the day. (Not in public, though!) Cat-Cow, Child’s pose, and Puppy pose should become your best friends. Use your abdominal muscles to support the baby, squeezing him in toward your spine to protect your lower back. (Click here for descriptions of the Top 10 Poses for Pregnancy)

Lay down on your left side for at least 20-30 minutes, as often as you can during the day. There is no such thing as too much rest during pregnancy! Place a pillow in between your knees and then just breathe slowly and evenly. This would be a good time to practice your kegels! 

Buy one of those big, inflatable exercise balls and sit on it instead of the couch. Spread your knees and rock your pelvis from side to side, back and forth, and around in circles. This can be a huge relief for a sore low back. Remember your kegels. The pressure of the ball helps to support your pelvic floor and prevent or relieve hemorrhoids. (The ball can also be a great place to spend early labor. Bouncing lightly up and down helps the baby descend into the pelvis.)

Did I mention to practice your kegels?

Yoga is an effective treatment for postpartum depression, with none of the side effects associated with anti-depressants, which is particularly important if you are breastfeeding. Find a gentle, slower paced class to ease your body back into shape, while calming your poor, sleep-deprived brain. This article does a great job explaining, medically, why yoga is effective. It’s not magic and it’s not mumbo-jumbo!

[...] Different aspects of yoga such as asana and pranayama have indispensable applications in the treatment of depression. For example, specific postures (or asanas as they are called in yogic parlance) are said to have a regulating effect on the endocrine system. There is evidence (from preliminary studies) to show that the regular practice of yoga reduces the production of stress hormones when exposed to stressful situations. The medulla oblongata in the brain controls respiration and the production of certain stress hormones. During stress, when the breathing becomes rapid, signals are sent to that part of the medulla oblongata to secrete stress hormones. However, with the regular practice of yoga, the breath remains steady even when confronted with stress and consequently, this reduces the brain’s impulse to secrete stress hormones.

Therefore, yoga brings about hormonal balance and stabilizes the endocrine system. The practice of relaxation techniques balances cortical activities and the nervous and endocrine systems, thus reducing the body`s predisposition to react to stress. As a result, the body produces less adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol, all stress hormones, and a state of harmony is achieved.

Read the full article at Natural News.

I have added a Yoga and Health Store to my blog! Just click on the link above and browse my selection of books, music, dvd’s, yoga gear, prenatal yoga and kid’s yoga products! I’ll be adding to the store regularly, so keep checking back. All purchases are made through Amazon.com and are guaranteed safe and secure.

From Rachel Yellin, a prenatal yoga teacher in San Francisco:

“Doing prenatal yoga doesn’t mean you’ll have the ‘perfect’ birth; it means you’ll be able to accept the perfection of the birth you’re given, regardless of whether it goes according to your plan.”

read more at  Yoga Journal.

Prenatal yoga is a great preparation for childbirth. The poses strengthen and open those areas of the body that are involved in labor, while minimizing pregnancy aches and pains and helping you to sleep more deeply. 

10.  Pranayama: Deep, slow breathing, in and out through the nose,  helps to keep you calm and relaxed during the potential stresses of pregnancy. It is also a great form of pain management for labor. 

9. Child’s Pose and Puppy Pose: Gets the weight of the baby off your pelvic floor, helps calm the mind and slow the heart rate. Separate your knees to make room for your belly, and place a pillow or cushion underneath your chest for support and comfort.

8.  Urdhva Hastasana: Upward Salute is energizing and refreshing. Stand straight and tall with your pelvis tucked under.  Sweep your arms up to the ceiling and then back to your sides, lifting your chest and pointing the crown of your head toward the ceiling. Repeat as many times as feels good.

7.  Vrksasana: Tree Pose keeps you balanced and centered. Have a chair or wall nearby in case you feel unstable. Tuck your pelvis underneath to counteract that pregnancy-induced lordosis.

6.  Utkatasana: Chair pose keeps your lower body toned and strong during pregnancy. Separate your legs wider than hip distance and place your elbows just above your knees, with hands in prayer position, to support your upper body.

5.  Virabhadrasana I and II: The warrior poses are wonderful for strengthening the muscles of the lower body while creating openness in the chest and torso. Take a shorter stance than usual, and use your kegel muscles to help tone your perineum.

4.  Sukhasana:  This “easy pose” is a great starting point for some gentle spinal twists, side bends, and deep breathing.

3.  Baddha Konasana: The Bound Angle Pose, or butterfly, is a gentle hip and inner thigh stretch which helps relieve tired, achy legs. Just make sure you sit up straight on top of the sitting bones.

2.  Malasana: or less poetically, squatting, is also a great preparatory pose for childbirth. It opens the pelvis and helps prevent leg cramps. Women traditionally gave birth in a squatting position, as opposed to flat on their backs, because it helps the baby descend into the pelvis and shortens the birth canal. Make sure to practice your kegels while performing this pose, to strengthen and increase blood flow to the pelvic muscles.

1.  Cat – Cow is the best prenatal yoga move you can do! It takes the weight of the baby off your pelvic floor, which helps prevent a later prolapse. Most pelvic floor damage is caused during pregnancy, not during labor as you might assume. Those poor muscles are holding up a lot of weight for months and months, and they get all stretched out and weak. There is a reason why four-legged mammals don’t end up with pelvic floor damage, incontinence, or uterine prolapse: their uterus is placed in front of, instead of on top of, the pelvis. You can mimic this benefit by spending as much time as possible on all fours!  Cat – Cow also helps move your baby into a head down, face down position before birth, minimizing the chances of a breech or sunny-side-up delivery. In my first pregnancy, I flipped my full term, 10 pound, sunny-side-up baby into a face down position by spending about a week on my hands and knees. I wouldn’t have been able to deliver him otherwise!

Yoga for Kids (7-12 years)

Thursday, 4:00-4:40pm
NEW PRICE $20.00 per month
(bring your own mat)

Our kid’s class is still enrolling! Tuition has been discounted to $20 per month. Call 491-0825 to sign up now.

Prenatal Yoga
NEW CLASS
(For Pregnant & Recently Pregnant Moms)

Tuesdays, 7:00-8:00pm
Begins January 6th
$20.00 per month

Take some time to take care of yourself. Come enjoy our soothing prenatal yoga class. This class is designed to relax and rejuvenate, relieve stress, and teach relaxation and breathing in preparation for birth and to recover from birth. Maintain or regain your physical fitness while bonding with your beautiful baby. New moms are welcome to bring babies (up to 1 year old).

As a singer and voice teacher, I have always been interested in the power of the voice. Vocalization was one of my most powerful tools during my labors to help me deal with the pain of childbirth. I found an interesting article on www.myyogaonline.com about this subject.

BENEFITS OF VOCAL TONING:

• open throat = open birth canal
• increases the length and depth of the exhalations
• sound vibrations also carry tension out of the body
• relaxing
• the sound helps calm and focus mind and body
• helpful tool to cope with labor contractions
• helps to let go of anxiety
• creates a sound of familiarity/continuity (and therefore reassurance) for your baby
• it is also a powerful breathing exercise

HOW TO TONE

Always tone from a soft throat and the sensation of an open throat tone for the entire length of the exhale, always following a deep inhalation low vibrations help to resonate the lower body, higher vibrations help resonate the upper body during labor, tone for the full length of the contraction if you are un-able to intake a deep breath during labor, try layering the breath in 2 or 3 short inhales, and then tone for the full length of the exhale/contraction.

Go with your intuitive sound. If “owww” is what works, go with it. There is no wrong or right sound.

PRACTICE

Start experimenting with different sounds. An easy one to start with is : ” ahhhhhhhhh”. Practice “mmmmmmm” The try all the vowel sounds “a e i o u” noticing what those different sounds feel like as you vocalize them. Everybody gravitates to their own personal sound. There is no wrong or right sound. Feel free to combine sounds, or even use a word.

PRACTICE WHILE PREGNANT! Your baby will listen! You are creating a comforting sound for baby.

PRACTICE WITH YOUR BIRTH PARTNER! So that they can help match your rhythm during labor,

and so that they know what to expect. Their voice can add a powerful support for your momentum during labor.

PRACTICE IN THE SHOWER, THE CAR, WHILE DOING DISHES, WHILE LYING IN BED……

DO NOT ALLOW ANY ONE TO TELL YOU TO “SHHHHHH” OR BE QUIET DURING LABOR. If this is suggested to you, request that this person leave the room. You are the one in charge of your labor, and ultimately, the birth. Be Empowered to know your voice can be spoken.

ENJOY, RELAX, FIND RHYTHM IN THIS RITUAL

Read more at My Yoga Online.

I have been looking for a comprehensive article on prenatal yoga practice, and I found a great one, with lots of pregnancy-safe poses, and clear descriptions and photos of each posture. I think yoga is one of the best ways for a pre- or post-natal mommy to keep in touch with her changing body. The important thing is to be accepting and non-judgmental of yourself as you gain weight and change shape. You’ll find you are more flexible during pregnancy, so don’t overstretch, but enjoy that openness in your joints and muscles.

Benefits of practicing yoga during pregnancy

Yoga relies heavily on breathing techniques to make the exercise fruitful. Exhale and inhaling deeply provides oxygen to the whole body, something we desperately need during pregnancy. The fetus stands to gain the benefit of this charged blood pumping in. While doing the exercise, breathing and moving the body sets the pace, and each is incomplete without the other. The results of this coordinated activity are phenomenal.

Yoga exercises also help in pre and postnatal depression, basically by relaxing the mind and putting a lot of fears at rest. The primary advantage of practicing Yoga is that the essential breathing exercises provide a mental calmness to the would-be Mom. This peace descends to her baby, and also helps her to take the crucial time of childbirth in her stride.

Physically speaking, the mild yogic exercises help maintain muscle tone, especially for the back and pelvic muscles that take such a tremendous beating during the nine months of pregnancy and about a year thereafter, till the baby is a toddler.

Yoga Nidra (Yogic Sleep) also relaxes the mind and body to such an extent that in many cases it even helps during the trauma of childbirth. The gentle toning and stretching exercises do wonders for preparing the body for caring the baby as well a delivering it.

Read more at Fitness Articles: Practicing Yoga during pregnancy.