You do not have to be an experienced Yogi to reap the benefits that prenatal yoga has to offer. Many people actually start their journey with yoga during pregnancy. Prenatal yoga can be gentle. Its purpose is to create strength and stability for your body during labor. As well as lengthen your muscles to make room for the baby. It will help you to start to connect with your breath, one of your most important tools for any kind of labor, medicated, unmediated, or cesarean. Here I have shared with you 5 simple poses that you can do at home on a regular basis. These poses will not only help your body to prepare for labor but can help ease discomforts from pregnancy as well.
Make sure to have two yoga blocks handy as you get started. (or use a stack of all those birth and parenting books you have bought)
Child’s Pose
This pose helps lengthen pelvic floor muscles and ease discomfort.
How to:
Kneel down and sit on your heels. Then lean forward slowly and walk your arms out long in front of you. Breathe deeply. You should feel the stretch in your armpits. You aren’t resting you are actively engaging your arms in pulling forward and your bottom pulling you backward. If needed you can rest your elbows on the ground in front of you with your hands supporting your head. As your belly grows, you can spread your knees farther apart to create space. If it’s uncomfortable to sit your backside on your heels, you can sit up higher.
Note: If experiencing heartburn keep heart above hips
Cat Cow
This will movement will help to shift the weight of the baby away from the spine, giving you some much needed relief. This can help put baby into an optimal fetal position helping to prevent the dreaded “back labor” you may have heard about.
How to:
Start on all fours. Inhale and look up, allowing back bending naturally and letting your belly drop with control. (You don’t want to place any emphasis on the low spine). As you exhale, round your spine, tuck in your bottom, and curl inward, looking down and toward navel. Continue to move through both poses as you inhale and exhale.
Side Lunge
This lunge opens the inner thighs. Which helps lengthen the pelvic floor and keeps your hips open. This can help in the process of labor and delivery, making room for baby to descend through the birth canal.
How to:
Stand with your feet spread wide apart. Make sure to keep both heels connected to the floor, bend into one knee. Bring your hands to the floor. If you cannot reach then this is a good time to grab you blocks. You can use them in anyway that helps you reach the floor. Keep the other leg straight, and then rotate that straight leg from deep in the hip socket so the toes point to the ceiling. Hold for 5 breaths then switch sides. Repeat once more per side
Supported Squat
Squat pose through a pregnancy can be done to strengthen the legs and to create a beautiful stretch to open up the hips and the lower back
There are two ways that may work for you to get into a squat:
First stand with your feet slightly wider than hips, with your yoga blocks behind you. Bend your knees to lower your hips into a deep squat, sitting on the blocks, palms together at your heart center.
or
Sit with both legs extended in front of you. One at a time, bend knees and place feet close to your seat, just wider than hip-width. Put weight into feet and lift off seat to come into a low, wide squat. Keep back straight and bring hands together between knees in prayer, pressing elbows into inner thighs. If needed, use blocks to rest your bottom on.
Option: Close your eyes and breathe deeply through your nose as you relax your pelvic floor (the muscles surrounding the vagina not the rectum) as you exhale squeeze those muscles. Repeat this 10 times.
Note: This pose is not recommended if you are experiencing any signs of premature labor.
Supported Fish Pose
Chest opening help create a lift of the front body which can counter the pressure on the compressed esophagus and make more room in the chest reducing reflux and creating more space to breath. It can release tension and create space in your back allowing you to do a back bend with overextending your tummy. Adding the butterfly legs keeps your pelvic joints flexible, eases blood flow to your lower body and creates space to ease labor.
How to:
You will need your yoga blocks for this one. From a comfortable seated position, place one yoga block several inches behind you on the lowest height. Place the other yoga block a few inches beyond that one on the middle or highest height. Fold legs into a butterfly position so that the feet are touching and knees fall comfortably out to the side. Slowly lower yourself back, allowing the middle of your back and upper neck/head to rest on blocks. You may need to play around with the position and height of the blocks to find what feels best to you. Once comfortable, allow your arms to rest naturally at your side. Let your body relax into the pose and gravity do the work of stretching your body while you take time to slowly inhale and exhale.
Written by our doula Christine, who is certified in prenatal and postpartum Women’s Nutrition and Yoga
