Yoga and pregnancy

It’s been 16 months since my daughter was born.  It’s really amazing to witness and experience all the changes that happen to a body during pregnancy and childbirth.  My practice has really been a way for me to understand these changes, except them, and work with them. The next 3 posts will be about how my practice evolved and supported me during the 3 phases of pregnancy.  (Well, the phases as I see them.)  The first is pregnancy, itself. The second is labor and delivery and the third is post-partum.

This post will address practicing while pregnant.  I had been practicing second series when I got pregnant.  I had read all I could about practicing while pregnant, but there was not much about practicing second series while pregnant.  I found a teacher who had given birth to two beautiful children and had also been practicing second and, even advanced series. She helped me modify my practice as I got further and further along in my pregnancy.  At first, there wasn’t much to change.  My belly didn’t start growing much until the 5th month.  I did not modify much until the 6th month.  (I was still coming up from Karandavasana at 5 1/2 months.)  The first thing I had to really modify were the deep twists- Pasasana and Ardha Matsyendrasana. I was also advised to stop jumping back, but I still did, sometimes.  The next thing to modify were backbends.  Not all pregnant women need to do this, but I was starting to feel pain right below my navel. Almost like my muscles were separating. So I still practiced Ustrasana but stopped deep backbending- so no more Kapo or deep backbends at the end of practice.  After 6 months, I began to practice only first series. I was really nice to re-discover first series.  My hips started to open more and poses like Baddhakonasana and Supta Padangustasana were fantastic to practice. I also believe they helped me during labor and delivery but I will address that in the next post.  Stay tuned!