Chapter 7: Pregnancy and

After Childbirth

You are about to become a mother. Your body is growing. Perhaps you have always been in a hurry and never quite taken the time to listen to your body. During pregnancy you are no longer capable of hurrying through life. That is the point, so your steps need to slow down.

PRACTICING YOGA IS A GREAT WAY to prepare yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally for pregnancy, childbirth, and parenthood. Make use of this time, get to know yourself inside, and cultivate body awareness and strength as you learn to control your breath. Yoga will teach you how to stay present – and you’ll need that when you become a mother. You will learn how to not react blindly, but to act with consideration.

To become a mom is such a personal experience, I cannot define it for you. Midwives and doctors will keep track of your health and how fast the fetus is growing, so that is taken care of for you. By practicing yoga, you can build an inner balance and strength that will help you with the big challenges. No matter if you are used to exercising or not, you will benefit greatly and find joy in yoga while getting ready for motherhood.

Yoga poses shown by yoga teacher

Sofia Norén, 31 years old

“In 1997 while I lived in New York, I was looking for an alternative way to stay in shape without getting injured, something that wasn’t dance or aerobics. That’s when I discovered yoga. To me, yoga is a tool to a dee per connection beyond the physical. The dee per I delve into yoga and myself, the more space I create. I always feel like a beginner in my meeting with yoga and I get even more humble before it every year. Yoga is a friend for life, it never ceases to surprise me and to guide me onto new paths in life.”

Sun Salutations for Pregnant Women

Sun salutations are a great way to warm up even when you are pregnant, but the sequencing is slightly different. You can do as many sun salutations as you please. The most important thing is that it feels good when you do it, but 4-5 of them gets the energy and the circulation going in the body.

1 Tadasana – Mountain Pose

Stand with your feet hip-distance apart and parallel. Feel the connection to the ground beneath your feet. Toes are pointing slightly in, and spread so that the arches of the feet are lifting. Relax your lumbar spine by drawing in your pelvis – sort of like you are lifting up your child from the underside. Let the arms relax by your sides. Feel how you relax in the shoulders. Lengthen and relax your neck and tuck the chin in slightly towards the chest. Transfer the weight slightly forward so that the gravitation line, ear-shoulder-hip, is in line with the highest point on the top of the foot, pada bandha, the foot-lock.

2 Reach the Arms Up

Reach your arms up and shoulder-width apart above your head but without lifting your shoulders. Lengthen the space between the shoulders and the ears. Look up.

3 Fold Torso Forward

Fold the torso forward and try to touch the floor with your hands. You can bend the knees if you feel any discomfort, or if you can’t reach the floor. Relax your neck and lift shoulders up and back.

4 Lengthen the Spine

Keep the hands on the ground if possible and lengthen the spine – all the way from the tailbone to the head. Imagine that you are looking between your eyebrows.

5 Cat Pose

Lower down to your knees and come into cat pose with a neutral spine, without over-arching or rounding the spine. Knees are hip-distance apart and hands are shoulder-width apart.

6 Downward Facing Dog

Come into downward facing dog by reaching your hips up. Strive to reach the heels to the ground. The hands are shoulder distance apart. Relax the neck so that it is parallel with the arms and draw the shoulders back. Visualize how you lengthen your spine. Stay here for 5-8 breaths.

7 Lengthen the Spine

Step out so that feet are hip-distance apart. Leave the hands on the ground if possible and lengthen the legs and the spine from the tailbo to the head. Gaze between your eyebrows.

9 Reach Arms Up

Come into standing with arms above the head. If it is difficult for you to stand up with a straight back, bend your knees and support yourself with your hands on your knees, then come up with your knees bent.

8 Fold Torso Forward

Fold torso over legs as much as possible.

10 Tadasana

Mountain pose – Tadasana

Health Tip

GINGER WATER

If you feel nauseous during your pregnancy or if you have a difficult time with your digestion, try drinking ginger water. Peel an inch or two of a ginger root and cut into pieces. Put into a cup and pour boiling hot water over and let it sit for a few minutes. Add a little bit of honey and squeeze some fresh lemon juice if you wish. Ginger comes from India and is added generously in cooking but also in Ayurveda – a system of medicine from India. The root is recommended during colds, influenza, cough, bad digestion, vomiting, burping, stomachaches, and hemorrhoids. Don’t drink too much of it, only one to two cups a day.

“Little you, I welcome your presence into my life, my union with you. When were you not in my life and in my heart?”

—Berber lullaby

When you practice relaxation regularly, you learn to dissolve stress as it occurs. That way you can prevent tensions and exhaustion from building up. You learn to let go, to relax and create opportunities to spend time with the people that are important in your life and with the life that you are carrying inside of you. Pay attention to what is inside of you and get to know yourself and the little human being that you are carrying in your belly by finding your inner calm.

Squatting

Squatting is great for pregnancy, even if it might not be the pose you give birth in.

We are all different and for some people squatting down without a little stool or a stack of books underneath the buttocks for support works great, while other people need the support to rest the back. If you have varicose veins, hemorrhoids, or feel it in the joints, sit on a little stool to lessen the pressure on the cervix and the pelvic floor. If the legs are swollen and you feel discomfort in this pose, lie down on your back with your legs against a wall and do a squat pose against the wall.

BENEFITS

This pose strengthens the legs, widens the pelvis, and softens the hips. It also aids blood circulation around the belly. The pressure around the abdomen combined with increased circulation prevents constipation, which commonly occurs during pregnancy.

HOW TO DO IT

• Slowly squat down by bending the knees and lowering the pelvic floor towards the ground. Place the feet wide apart and point the toes in the same direction as the knees.
• Gently press the knees wide apart with your elbows and rest the palms against each other or interlace the fingers.
• Lengthen the back and lean forward slightly to relax the backside.
• Maintain this pose and breath with even inhales and exhales for a minute and a half.

Crossing of the Arms

BENEFITS

Stretches the space between the shoulder blades and relieves tension in the neck and shoulders.

HOW TO DO IT

• Cross the arms in front of your chest. Begin by placing your right elbow over your left elbow crease, then intertwine the arms so that the palms come together. Think of lowering your shoulders so that you don’t pull them up to your ears, and try to soften them.
• Gaze towards the fingers and hold this pose as you breathe deeply for a few minutes. Then switch the crossing of the arms. Shoulders, neck, and shoulder blades may feel tender during pregnancy. It almost feels as if the blood is standing still in your veins. The following poses are great during pregnancy but also after childbirth, when you need to soften the shoulders and neck after breast feeding.

Stretching the Neck

BENEFITS

Releases neck and shoulder tension. This pose also lengthens and stretches the spine.

HOW TO DO IT

• Lengthen the spine, all the way to the neck. Gently tilt the chin towards your chest as you lengthen your neck.
• Place hands on the back of your head to stretch the neck. Keep shoulders down and lengthen the space between the shoulders and the ears.

Adho Mukha Virasana – Forward Spine Stretch – Child’s Pose

BENEFITS

In this pose your back gets to relax because the baby’s weight shifts forward whether you place a pillow underneath your uterus or not. This is a very soothing pose for back pains, which often occur during pregnancy. It quickly alleviates tensions in the lumbar region, or any form of sciatica pains, while it softens the hip joints and pelvic joints and makes them more flexible. The muscles around the abdomen relax and that relieves any stress related contractions.

HOW TO DO IT

• Sit with your legs underneath you and the knees separated out to the sides. The big toes are pointing towards each other and the butt rests on the heels.
• Let the pelvis sink down and get heavy against the feet.
• Relax the lower back and lean forward from the hips. Keep the butt on the heels.
• Stretch the upper body forward and down, and reach the arms in front of you or rest the forehead on the hands. You can stay like this from a few breaths to 3-4 minutes.

Legs-up-the-Wall Pose

BENEFITS

This pose is both stimulating and relaxing at the same time. It increases the blood circulation in the entire body. During pregnancy we retain a lot of water. Together with the extra body weight it can result in swollen legs and varicose veins. This pose relieves the pressure on the veins and allows the legs to rest. Don’t do this pose if you have high blood pressure. You may feel discomfort in this pose towards the end of your pregnancy.

HOW TO DO IT

• Lie down on the back with the legs against the wall. Make sure that your butt is touching the wall and that the torso is straight. Rest your hands on your belly and feel the connection to your baby.
• Lengthen the neck by tilting the neck towards the chest. Relax the back, the head, the neck, and the shoulders. Close your eyes and follow the breath.
• You can lie like this for 3 minutes. Then roll over to one side and rest.

Yoga poses shown by yoga teacher

Sassa Lee, 37 years old, and her daughter Mika

“It took a lot of persuasion on my friend’s part to finally convince me to go with her to yoga class. That was in the beginning of 1997, and yoga has been a central part of my life ever since. It is difficult to find words to describe what yoga means to me, and all the benefits that came with it, without sounding pretentious. But if I were to mention something, yoga has helped me to cultivate patience, partly through its craft but also because I practice it regularly. To- day I have so much more patience with people, in situations and different relationships. Yoga has taught me that it can prove fruitful to not always react to every situation. A reaction is often hasty and requires a lot of unnecessary energy to restore the situation. In the end, everything is the way it should be anyway. The trick is to get there as smoothly as possible.”

Pelvic Floor

The pelvic floor is built like a hammock of muscles that attach at the lumbar region and at the abdominal muscles. The muscles stretch straight through the base of the body, from the pubic bone to the tailbone. These muscles need to be strengthened in order to support the uterus and other organs during your pregnancy and after you have given birth.

In yoga you learn to engage energy locks in the body and there are three different ones around the pelvic floor:

Ashwinimudra

Imagine that you are pulling in and up around the anus.

Mula Bandha

Imagine that you are pulling the perineum, the area between your genitals and the anus, up.

Vajroli Mudra

Imagine that you are engaging your clitoris, the area right in front of the urethra, in and up. When you first start out, it will feel as if you are engaging the entire area around your genitals. If you keep practicing, you will learn to localize and isolate engagement in the different locks. Start step by step by breathing in and lifting up each of these areas, and then exhale and release each lock step by step.

Why is it good to train the pelvic floor muscles?

• Increased knowledge and awareness of the pelvic floor muscles can enable you to control the muscles during labor.
• When the pelvic floor muscles are well-trained, the elasticity in the vagina and in the perineum increases, which keeps the pelvis in place. This can affect the inner organs and prevent pressure on the back and the pelvis.
• Your genitals will recover faster after you give birth.
• Pelvic floor training increases the oxygen in the blood, which helps to heal the genitals and recover the muscles faster.
• Prevents incontinence issues, hemorrhoids, and uterine prolapse.
• Your ability to control your pelvic floor muscles might positively affect your sex life.

Pelvic Floor Exercise

HOW TO DO IT

• Begin by identifying the pelvic floor, the area between the tailbone and the pubic bone. You can lie down on your back with your legs bent or sit with your legs crossed. After a while, if you feel discomfort lying on your back, turn so that you are lying on the side instead.
• Breathe naturally. Begin by engaging the sphincter around the rectum. Continue forward and up and around the vagina and the urethra opening, like you are about to lift something up.
• Inhale and engage the muscles. Relax on the exhale. Lie like this for a moment and localize all the little muscles around the pelvis. If you are comfortable you can continue to engage these muscles for a little bit longer.
• Continue to hold on a count to five and then slowly release. Rest in between the contractions if you need to. Repeat 7 – 10 times.
• Finish off with short and rhythmic engagements of the muscles for as long as is comfortable.

Pelvic Lift A

HOW TO DO IT

• Lie down on the floor on your back with your knees bent and your feet hip-distance apart on the ground. Rest your arms by your sides with the palms on the floor.
• Relax your shoulders and imagine that you are increasing the space between your ears and your shoulders. Lengthen your neck by tilting your chin to your chest.
• Press the feet into the floor, and engage the gluteus muscles on an exhale. Simultaneously engage the pelvic floor muscles. Repeat this a few times. If it feels good, move on to the next pelvic lift.

Pelvic Lift B

HOW TO DO IT

• Lift your hips and engage the pelvic floor muscles on an inhale; keep engaging as you breath out and stay lifted. Try to keep your inhales and exhales even. Take a few breaths like this.
• Slowly come down vertabra by vertabra on an exhale.
• Rest if this pose becomes too weight-bearing or uncomfortable. Lie still and breathe calmly and evenly.

Pelvis Lift in Cat Pose

BENEFITS

This exercise strengthens the uterus and the pelvic floor muscles. This pose also relieves the pressure on the lumbar spine and strengthens your breath.

HOW TO DO IT

• Come onto all fours with your hands shoulder-width apart and your legs, knees, and feet hip-distance apart. Find the natural curve of the spine and make that your starting position.
• Exhale and round your back so that the small of the back is almost flat. You can almost feel how the uterus is pulled up when you simultaneously engage the pelvic floor muscles.
• Inhale and come back to the starting position and stay here for the exhale.
• On the next inhale, reach your chest up and lower your abdomen down. Lift the head and reach it back.
• Repeat these steps slowly several times. Rest in Adho Mukha Virasana/child’s pose in between if you need to.