Pregnancy Yoga

I signed up for pregnancy yoga over the summer. I debated whether to do it or not, citing the lack of time (and disposable resources) as the main obstacle. But I'm glad I did. Once the summer session ends in two weeks, I'll sign up again for the fall so that yoga gets me through the entire pregnancy.

Since I've basically thrown exercise to the wind two years ago when Ivan was born, I have progressively gotten rather out of shape (except for unstructured daily lifting of a human free weight, e.g. the toddler, whose weight keeps increasing and is now up to some 30 pounds.)

I've had the best intentions of going to the pool for regular swims, like I did the summer I was pregnant with Ivan. But so far, we've been to the pool once, and I didn't even get in the water. I was the mom guard, in charge of guarding our stuff, while Ivan and Andy soaked in the water. (Not that it mattered, there were so many people in the pool that any attempt at swimming would've been futile.)

But yoga was been wonderful, even more therapeutic than I remember it with Ivan. It's amazing how a few isometric stretches and poses, which look impossible to do but actually feel really good, make me feel like I’m in control of my body. I stand taller and straighter, and feel more graceful, even comfortable in my gigantic waddling body, after each session. The slightly sore muscle pain actually makes me feel fit. The practice is also very calming. And the shavanasana (sp) pose that each practice ends with, is simply to die for, no pun intended. It's the most relaxing experience, more restful than an undisturbed night of sleep.

Even on hot and humid days, like this past Saturday and today, when doing anything other than laying down felt like an uncomfortable exertion on my growing girth and when I had second thoughts about going to the practice, an hour and a half of yoga makes me feel light, fit and able.

This morning, my shoulders were killing me. The area between my shoulder blades was so tight and sore that I all I wanted to do was lay down. Coincidentally, the focus of this evening’s practice was on body twists. These twists do wonders for shoulder and back stretching. The pain I felt all day today, has simply dissipated.

Yoga teachers and other yoga aficionados, especially the earthly mother types and those into natural mid-wifey homebirths, advocate for yoga for helping in childbirth. The mantra that yoga teachers give throughout each class is geared toward natural homebirths.

I like to hear that view. In principle, I’m all for it. I tried to espouse it with Ivan—the natural birth part, not the homebirth part. But I’m not sure whether it worked. I would like to think that yoga did help me birth him, although after having endured 56 ½ hours of labor, of which the last 10 hours were spend under the relaxing drip of an epidural, I wonder. On the other hand, how closed would’ve my hips been had it not been for yoga.

It did however help me labor. All labor techniques that I employed I remembered from the semester worth of yoga, not from a six-hour hasty hospital-sponsored Lamaze class.

So this time, I’m doing yoga for myself and my physical well-being rather than for the supposed childbirth benefits, even if I still like to hear the holistic and earthly messages yoga teachers imbue each class with. However, I still plan to birth this child as naturally as I can possibly endure it. Hopefully, Ivan’s 56 hours journey through the birth canal has paved the way.