A healthy spine after childbirth

A HEALTHY SPINE AFTER CHILDBIRTH

After the birth of a child the mother’s body will undergo many changes of varying degrees. The tummy will change and the organs within the torso will slowly begin their journey back to the correct placement. Many of the difficulties of pregnancy will slowly disappear and the spine realigning is one of the most important things to correct.

The spine is actually like the coat hanger for the body. When the coat hanger is straight and in the correct placement the clothing, our body, can hang without creases.

After childbirth, many women need some realignment of the spine and yoga is a very wonderful way to do this. There are some quite simple and very affective exercises to begin this journey.

Uddiyana bandha is the drawing in of the navel toward the spine. The idea is to attempt to keep the navel in close to the spine and to direct the breath up into the chest. This may seem quite simple but believe me, after childbirth, even thinking of activating the lower belly is quite a task.

Begin by sitting down comfortably. Your baby will probably be quite near so chose a time when they are resting. It need not be long as it can be testing to keep the concentration once you are breastfeeding at the start. Give yourself 5 minutes to attempt this then have a cuppa.

Comfortable cross legged position is best but really this works standing up, sitting feeding your baby and even driving the car.

Take your attention to your belly button and attempt to bring it in contact with your spine. Now, try and keep it there and begin to direct your breath up high into your chest. Straight after childbirth it may seem as though nothing is happening but you are doing it, keep focused!! This is a wonderful and gently way of reawakening the muscles of the tummy also.

Slowly begin to build your breath, deeper and deeper until you have a good sound and length of breath happening. This exercise seems so simple but if practiced every day with consistency, it will gently and sweetly bring a mothers spine back into alignment.

Once you are recovering from the birth experience you can add a few poses to your breathing routine and again, try and keep your navel in toward the spine. Even 5 postures with concentration will have a wonderful effect on the body.

Our spine holds up most of the body and is made up of 24 bones. If we treat them with kindness and awareness they will help us to stand up straight and realign all the other parts of the body that have been pushed out of shape to fit a baby inside. Slow and steady does it. It took 9 months to make this baby. Allow the same kind of time to realign and awaken the body.