It´s standard procedure these days to have a partner in the labor room to remind you to breathe and push. They provide support and comfort, but wouldn´t it be great to have something that would make things physically easier? Something, say, that would prepare the pelvic bones to widen; something that would help you center yourself emotionally for the birth, to work through the pain instead of fighting it.
There is something like that, and it´s not a pill or a surgical procedure. And as an added plus, it feels good!
Barbara Anderson´s prenatal yoga class at Body & Soul of Kansas City has been a learning experience for teacher and students alike. "I am so impressed with these students," Anderson says. "They are very focused, and really know how to concentrate. Perhaps they´re listening really hard because Game Day isn´t that far away! Yoga gives them the confidence to follow their instincts while giving birth, and afterwards as a mother."
Judy Bauer, 38, one of Anderson´s students who has been studying yoga for more than a year, concurs. "You feel like you´re not just doing it for yourself," she says. "You learn to listen to your body, to take the time to notice what´s changing, and to learn not to fight it. Yoga takes a lot of the aches and pains and general discomfort away." This architect who also teaches an architectural studio course at UMKC has also enjoyed the camaraderie. She recently moved to Kansas City from New York City, and is making friends quickly with women going through what she´s going through.
Jill McCalman, a media relations person for the Kansas City Police Department who recently joined the class, says her yoga classmates "certainly have a lot in common, even though we´re all at difference stages of pregnancy." She says she is learning a lot as she faces the challenges of being 31 and six months pregnant with her second child. "I like it a lot," she says. "During my last pregnancy, I took a prenatal exercise class, but I like prenatal yoga more. Barbara doesn´t baby us (pardon the pun). While we still get a good workout, she does modify moves for us. I have noticed that the work keeps me aware of my posture, so I am not falling back into bad habits. And at least one night a week, the one after class, I sleep really, really well!"
Sarah Gollier, 29, a new yoga student and physical therapist who is six months pregnant with her first child, says she thinks her flexibility is improving, and that her teacher does a good job of helping the class stretch - but not stretch too much. "When the muscles are more relaxed, it makes a person less stressed," she says. "I´d certainly say the class eases tension, and helps increase body awareness. Yoga is something you need to do even when you´re not pregnant; I think getting pregnant just made me address a need that was already there."
Anderson is teaching all of these women a few tricks that fix many of the complaints of pregnancy. "Yoga helps tiredness, back pain, nausea, anxiety, headaches and other complaints of pregnancy," she says. It exercises the mind as well as the body, brings about emotional healing, frees emotional blocks. You feel more harmonious and in tune with life after a class in yoga. You learn to relax, gain flexibility and strength in a completely gentle, non-impact way. What we learn in our body we then incorporate into our lives. The word yoga means union - and it is a marriage between your inner center and that of the earth itself. You become more grounded, and experience more energy, vitality, light and joy in life. You learn to listen to your body and become more aware of breath, balance, the miracle in your body. By focusing on the breath, the body and the intension, the postures become a moving meditation.
"Certain yoga positions are especially comfortable and useful as you get into the later months of pregnancy," she says. "We teach positions that open and release the pelvis, widen the pelvic diameters, and reduce pressure on the lower spine. Most expectant mothers experience some lower back pain as the pelvis tilts forward and the weight of the uterus and the baby is thrown forward on the abdominal muscles. Posture is unbalanced, resulting in stress and a pain in the lower back and hip joints."
When your posture´s out of balance, muscles compensate and act as supporters, contracting and stiffening. You end up carrying unnecessary tension, which leads to fatigue. By correcting the posture, you can help lengthen the spine, the body relaxes and unwinds, and tension is released.
Yoga also teaches ease in positions such as squatting and kneeling, which allows gravity to assist the baby´s passage through the birth canal.
Yoga´s breathing practices also help, because when you breathe deeply you stimulate the release of endorphins, preparing the body´s psychological response to pain in labor. In class, students learn to relax deeply and accept and yield to what is taking place, rather than fighting it.
And most important, it teaches mom to learn to sit silently and focus on her inner center; to pause and become quiet. Mother and the baby are deeply connected; her body rhythms and feelings are naturally synchronized to the baby. Yoga can help her become more instinctive, more intuitive, more able to respond to changes happening to her.
Written by Linda Rostenberg