Yoga to Prepare for Birth

So you've hired a doula (yay!), signed yourself and your partner up for a childbirth education series, registered for baby essentials, and you've been eating a healthy and varied diet to nourish your growing child.  What else can you do to prepare your body to give birth?  Don't shy away from prenatal exercise.  You may be tired, sore, and maybe nauseous, but sitting on the couch will not help your symptoms and will probably just bring them more into focus.  Talk to your healthcare provider about what types of exercise are safe for your pregnancy (some moms have risk factors that prevent certain types of exercise).  In most healthy pregnancies two of the most beneficial and enjoyable exercise options are walking and yoga.

Prenatal yoga is designed with the safety of pregnant moms in mind and is usually tailored to which trimester you are in.  It is never too early (or late) to begin incorporating yoga into your pregnancy.  Yoga prepares your body for birth in a number of ways.  It strengthens and lengthens your muscles, making you more flexible and lithe.  Yoga also helps position your baby properly for birth and relieves many common pregnancy complaints such as low back ache and sciatica.  Yoga practice can also aid in proper digestion, eliminating toxins from the body, and poses such as squatting help prepare the pelvic floor muscles for birth.

Yoga teaches deep abdominal breathing which is wonderful for labor!  Deep breathing halts the body's 'fight or flight' response, which is a response triggered by your sympathetic nervous system during times of stress, fear, or excitement.  The fight or flight response releases catecholamines (adrenaline and noradrenaline) into your blood stream and is one of the most common causes of labor dystocia (or stalled labor).  For animals in the wild this response is necessary so that a laboring mom can flee to safety before birth is imminent.  Unfortunately this response can be triggered in humans, even in a safe environment, when we are faced with unfamiliar surroundings during labor, negative attitudes from care providers, or any stress or fear relating to the birth.  During labor we need to relax, find a rhythm, and give ourselves over to the process.  Fear and tension cause unnecessary pain during labor and can be remedied by relaxation techniques, one of which is the deep, abdominal breathing that yoga will teach you.

There are many wonderful prenatal yoga DVD's available for purchase.  But if you're looking for something basic and don't have a DVD purchase in your baby budget YogaDownload.com publishes a good, basic prenatal yoga class on YouTube, which is 25 minutes long and incorporates information about preparing for birth.  You can view it below.




Jacksonville, NC (and surrounding area) residents, some local yoga resources are listed below:

Pre and Post-natal Yoga and

Resistance Training Sponsored by

the Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune

http://www.mccslejeune.com/

groupexercise/index.html

910-451-3712

Pre-natal Workout and Yoga Marine

Corps Air Station New River Gym

910-449-6003

Corporate Wellness & Yoga
200 Valencia Drive, 
Jacksonville, NC 28546 
(910) 353-6350

Onslow Fitness

1140 Henderson Drive, Jacksonville,

North Carolina - (910) 455-7274

Courts Plus

104 N Marine Blvd, Jacksonville -

(910) 346-3446

Gold's Gym

www.goldsgym.com - 4126

Henderson Drive, Jacksonville

(910) 347-8880  ‎

Wilmington Yoga Center

5329 Oleander Drive, Suite 200

Wilmington, NC 28403

Beside Cinema 6

910-350-0234

info@wilmingtonyogacenter.com