When asking first-time pregnant women about how they visualize their delivery, most answer that they are overwhelmed with fear. It is something natural, the fear of the unknown. Today in mamayoga we explain how to prepare body and mind for childbirth through yoga.
This way you will feel powerful, you will go through your fears, you will recognize the capable and brave woman you are.
How to prepare your body for childbirth
Before you start learning how to prepare your body and mind for childbirth, remember that your woman's body already knows how to give birth. It is designed for it. It is not about having better hips or being more or less flexible. It's something instinctive, natural, and beautiful that will happen out of your control.. Nothing to teach you, just an invitation to listen to yourself.
Even so, you will know that keeping the body active, a healthy diet and a relaxed mind will bring you closer to the start of labor in the best possible way.
We are talking about the onset of labor when contractions of the uterus begin on a regular basis that increase in intensity and frequency until the cervix disappears. We might think that this happens in a short time and suddenly the baby is already in your arms, but it is not.
The prepartum or prodromal period, that is, the beginning of the first labor symptoms and more or less regular contractions, can last up to two weeks. until the uterus is dilated. Dilation or labor itself, the regular contractions that increase in intensity and frequency, is around 18 hours for first-time mothers. Yes, you heard correctly, 18 hours on average.
So, with all this marathon ahead, how can you help yourself through yoga?
childbirth is movement
This is the first premise that you must remember to prepare your body (and your mind) for childbirth, childbirth is movement. Move freely with each contraction, adjust your body, be intimate with your awakened senses.
During your pregnancy, dynamic yoga practices with movement and fluidity will help you loosen your hips, release tension, recognize paths in your body that you had forgotten, dance and feel.
You are going to mobilize your body, feel active and relaxed at the same time. And that state of active relaxation is the perfect state to face your labor. You will also get to know yourself on a physical level, your body, your movements, your rules.
Know your resources
As a woman you have several powerful own resources to face the moment of childbirth. The voice, the sound and the breath They will be your allies both during the intensity and in the rest spaces.
In the yoga classes for pregnant women We invite you to rediscover your breathing.
- A natural breath that calms
- A breath that soothes and unloads
- A breath that accompanies and accompanies the movement
- A breath that invites pleasure
- A breath that oxygenates and revitalizes
You will be able to use this wonderful resource that is your breath both in the hours before and in active labor. In the breaks between contractions, breathe a few times wide and deep, fill yourself with life, and return to your natural and spontaneous breathing for the intensity of the contractions.
Explore your voice and all the sounds that help you release tension, let go of mental control, and focus on living the experience of giving birth.
In addition, another great resource that you have is to increase the levels of pleasure in your body. The joy of practicing yoga and the small and great pleasures of life. Why pleasure and the high levels of oxytocin will accompany you so that the labor is fluid and you can transit its intensity.
How to prepare your mind for childbirth
Yoga teaches us to calm the mind and emotions, through breathing, meditation and changing perspective. Our mental state influences how we see the reality around us. No one can predict or change how your delivery will be, but you can change how you deal with it mentally and emotionally.
Do not think that just because you think positive, your delivery will be all glitter or a path of roses. There will be physical ups and downs, also mental but above all emotional. Emotions teach us, we observe them, we let them express themselves and we move through them. Without getting stuck in them.
Yoga is an invitation to observe, to find a calm and balanced mental state that will allow you to face the challenge of your childbirth, and also that of your motherhood.
Recognize your capabilities
Remember once again that you know how to give birth. Your body knows it, your instinct, your hormones, your soul, it is not something mental that you should learn. despite this the tools of yoga, meditation and conscious breathing will help you develop and rediscover your abilities.
Yoga practice will help you:
- Feel powerful and strong.
- Gain confidence in your body and your abilities.
- Face fears even if they are.
- Open up to life.
- Break mind control.
- Become more sensitive to what happens inside you.
change the perspective
change perspective, all this that you feel is worth it because the baby arrives. You'll have him in your arms in no time, it's worth the madness. Get out of control, get out of control, break yourself, because the baby will be born, but you will also be born as a mother.
Change the word pain to intensity, an incredible and breaking intensity that you have never felt before. Express yourself through screams, sounds, movements, don't hold back, be free to listen and let go.
Enjoy the vital moment that will be your delivery, whatever it is, it is your delivery. The deliveries are unique and alive, all options are valid: natural, instrumented or cesarean deliveries. All are valid and all can be wonderful experiences. Live it, because it will not be repeated, even if you have more children. Each woman is unique and each delivery is unique.
We would love to accompany you on this beautiful path. will you join our tribe?
Silvia Gallego
Author and editor, prenatal yoga teacher
