Having recently given birth to my beautiful son, Henry, I wanted to share with you all my experience of pregnancy, and how continuing to practice yoga regularly helped me to prepare, both mentally and physically, for my due date.
Fostering a Positive Mind-set
Pregnancy is a life-changing milestone, and with that comes a mixed bag of emotions: joy, excitement, boundless love… nerves, uncertainty, fear of the unknown. As a yoga instructor, I knew from the outset that yoga would support me through my pregnancy; however I wasn’t expecting it to mentally support me to the extent that it did.
Each morning, before I began my day, I would ensure that I got in at least half an hour of gentle yoga and pranayama. Just the small ritual of setting aside a little bit of time for myself, to listen to my body and to ground myself, made me feel calm and capable, quashing any feelings of being overwhelmed.
One of the fundamental teachings of yoga is how to achieve a peaceful and meditative mind-set, and this is especially important for expecting mothers that lead busy and fast-paced lifestyles, and need to reconnect.
Pranayama
For me, the practice of pranayama was central to my experience, both throughout the pregnancy and during labour. Pranayama is the formal practice of controlling the breath, which is the source of our prana; our vital life force. When you focus on consistently breathing deeply and evenly, it has an almost instant calming effect. This is because pranayama breathing encourages you to use your parasympathetic nervous system, as opposed to our usually active sympathetic nervous system that controls our fight or flight response.
During my pregnancy, pranayama was integral in ensuring I stayed relaxed and didn’t come under unnecessary stress or pressure. It’s a great way to bring yourself into a meditative state, and make sure you and baby don’t feel the negative effects of built up tension. Pranayama also worked to somewhat relieve my morning sickness, which was something I really struggled with throughout my pregnancy!
Hypnobirthing
A resource that I found especially helpful throughout my journey was an online hypnobirthing course, developed by Siobhan Miller as part of The Positive Birth Company. Contrary to what it sounds like, hypnobirthing is grounded in scientific theory and helps with understanding how birth works from a physiological perspective. Most importantly, I learnt what can be done to ensure the necessary hormones and muscles required to birth a baby were able to do their job uninhibited, which made me feel prepared and at ease for was what to come.
Every day for the first 4 months of my pregnancy, I would go online and learn about what I was going through, what I should expect, and how to best cope with it. At its core, however, it focused mainly on coping mechanisms like breathing and visualisation, centred on not letting fear taking over. This went hand in hand with my yoga background, as it takes root in being mentally grounded, and equipping yourself mentally in preparation for the physical.
Physical Endurance
While the relaxing, meditative side of yoga was pivotal in mentally preparing me for the birth, I really felt the physical benefits of yoga both throughout the pregnancy and during the labour. Whilst pregnant, the core strength and the back strength which I’ve built up over the years really relieved some of the pressure of carrying around a physical load for such an extended period of time!
When it came to my labour experience, it wasn’t as smooth as I had anticipated – I was in labour for a very long 34 hours! However, the experience was made much more bearable because of my preparation. As you can imagine, the pranayama breathing exercises came in useful to ensure I stayed calm through a very stressful process. I also tried to make the experience as sensory orientated as possible. For example, during the pregnancy, in periods of relaxation, I would listen to my yoga playlist and use essential oils. During labour, I had the same playlist, and the same rose and geranium essential oils diffusing around the room so to bring me as close as possible to the state of relaxation achieved pre-labour! Had I not learnt how to effectively control and manage my state of mind and state of being using yoga practices, I believe it would’ve been a much more challenging experience.
Beginning Your Own Journey
Yoga empowered me throughout my pregnancy by ensuring I was equipped with the tools needed to create a positive, assured and calm birth for myself and baby. If you are looking to make yoga an integral part of your journey, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and I will be more than happy to discuss how I can help I understand each individual experience is different, and I can provide both group and one-to-one sessions which ensures your specific, individual needs are met. I look forward to hearing from you soon!
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