Yoga, Pregnancy and Childbirth

I have had the great fortune to carry and deliver two children and both experiences of pregnancy and childbirth were completely different. I feel this is largely based on the amount and kind of exercise I did during the pregnancy of both children.

A woman's body goes through many changes during pregnancy. Yoga is a fantastic way to help the body to absorb and flow with these changes. Working on keeping some flexibility in the body not only helps during the process of labour, which can be laborious and energy taxing, but also helps the mother to keep a flexibility in her mental state. Going with the changes associated with pregnancy rather than trying to hold onto the old life you once knew will surely help this whole experience to be easier on the mother and then transfer this energy to her growing child.

With my first child I did very little exercise, taking it easy and surely eating for TWO!!! I was a rather large pregnant woman and gained around 23kg, making me quite cumbersome at the end of this pregnancy. I was putting off the realisation that I would have to work to regain my body after the birth and indeed just to keep my baby and myself functioning in the real world.

After the birth of my 1st daughter, Bimini Breeze, which took 42 hours of labour I found it quite a shock to have to come into my body and start the repair process. I feel sure that my labour may have been easier had I practiced more yoga, done more walking, generally worked my body a little harder. The pick up was slow and my flexibility in life and body took some time to kick in. Hmmm ! !.

I learnt a quite difficult but very valuable lesson in responsibility to myself and definitely my baby and partner. It is not up to anybody but me to put myself in a position to handle the choices I make in life. It was an easy choice to make our baby, but then it was up to me to make that carriage and birth the easiest I could for all of us. Big lesson learnt the hard way !..

With my second baby I practiced a lot of yoga, every week, right up to the last month of the pregnancy. This was fantastic and I felt so alive and at peace with my baby and body. The breathing we did in class made me feel as though my baby was receiving the oxygen straight in as I took those deep breaths. Amazing!!!

As we practiced the postures if I felt to stop I would make myself hold it for a second longer, just a second, not so much. But that was enough for my mind to become strong to the rigours of pain, something closely associated with childbirth let me tell you. There is nothing like the feeling of labour as the time draws close, nothing can describe the pain a woman feels and it is just not going to end because you don't like it. I would imagine that I was nearing the end of the labour and that second I held the posture was the time the head was nearing. Just to come to peace with a little pain and not shy away from it.

I also walked a lot through this pregnancy. We have a beautiful and hilly walk in our town, Byron Bay around the lighthouse. Firstly, i's a beautiful walk, the most easterly point of Australia. Dolphins, whales and turtles abound and it is a stunning way to spend a morning. There is a huge set of steps up to the lighthouse, really rather long and ardous. I walked these steps every time, always feeling as though I could not take another step but forging on. I would think to myself again of the end of labour and imagine the time drawing close. Strength of mind is something to be had at this stage of the birthing process, you MUST carry on.

This time it took me only 1 ½ hours to birth my delightful baby boy, Gabriel. It was so smooth that he took us by surprise and my husband had to deliver him on the bathroom floor! I breathed and breathed and imagined myself in the yoga class, staying in the posture for that little extra time, walking the steps, accepting the pain as something that comes with this experience.

What a difference the two births were. I feel the birth of my boy Gabriel was my bravest moment in life so far. I went with the process the whole time, only going forward in my mind. Yoga helped me with this one million percent. The tools learnt in all my yoga practices allowed me to surrender to this experience totally.

Breathing techniques learnt during yoga class helped me to use each breath as a way of opening my body and mind. Ultimately it is the mind that controls us and learning to control and use my mind to focus on one specific part of the body helped me to work this labour, not it work me.

Yoga is the practice of aligning the body, mind and spirit. If there is one time in life a woman needs this it is during birth. Practice as much yoga as you can during pregnancy, not just for your body, which will thank you after but for your soul, it is really the part of your existence which needs to be open. Yoga is a way to ignite your whole being into becoming one, practice, practice, practice ! !.