Why Postnatal Yoga (Yoga for new mums)?

The past nine months have already been a challenge for you. Your body has changed each day due to the growth of your baby, and you have realized that your whole life will be different from now on. Actually, you have had nine months to prepare yourself for this new life. But suddenly the baby is born – and you are a real mum! Again, there are massive changes in your life, within hours instead of months. You need to care for your newborn from directly after birth, you suffer from lack of sleep, and you learn that the early months after birth are all about feeding and sleeping. While being so focussed on the baby’s wellbeing and struggling to manage their families’ day-to-day life, many women forget about themselves. They forget about their weakened body, they lift and carry their baby for hours and hours, and aiming to be the best mum ever they don’t allow themselves to rest. Thus, neck and back pain, fatigue, baby blues or even postnatal depression are well known issues in a new mum’s life.How can Yoga help to make early motherhood a time of joy?

START ASAP, BUT WISELY

As a new mum you should start with easy exercises as soon as possible after birth. Many women fear pain or further damage, but in fact you support the restorative process of your body – if you choose your exercises wisely. It is a fact, that most women are stronger in the very last days of pregnancy than in the first weeks or even months after birth!While some new mums feel too tired or busy to think about exercising, others wish to get their figure back immediately and start too soon with normal exercises. The key is to start gently! In the first six to eight weeks the main focus is on restoring your uterus, re-aligning your abdominal muscles and strengthening your pelvic floor. Both your abdominal and pelvic floor muscles have been extremely stretched during pregnancy and the birthing process. Now they are too weak to keep your body upright and hold the inner organs in place, causing a lot of discomfort (back pain, weak bladder) if not trained properly. Postnatal yoga is ideal for starting with gentle exercises, as it is a non-competitive form of physical and mental training. It offers a wide range of easy restorative yoga postures, many of them practiced lying on the floor, leaned against a wall and/or supported by cushions and bolsters. They allow you to relax deeply, helping your body to recover from birth. Gentle chest openers not only improve your ability to breathe deeply, they also activate your heart centre, which is associated with love and devotion. It has turned out that mothers suffering from baby blues or even postnatal depression felt better when practicing chest (or heart) openers regularly. They “opened up” again, allowing themselves to take part in the everyday life, to love and to care for their baby and to accept help, if necessary. A number of neck and shoulder exercises can also be practiced in the early days after delivery. They aim to loosen tight muscles and strengthen them in order to ease or avoid pain related to feeding, lifting and carrying your baby.The harmonization of breath and movement is a major idea in all yoga styles. Breathing helps to activate the abdominal muscles gently (e. g. when pulling the navel inwards on your out-breath) in order to bring them back to their natural length and position. Breathing exercises also increase your lung capacity, which has been reduced during pregnancy. Furthermore, controlled breathing helps you to relax and to refresh within minutes – a simple but effective way to ease tiredness after a short night or during an exhausting day.These simple exercises have a massive effect on your body. With a bit of regular practise you not only build up basic strength, but also become aware of your body. Listening to your body enables you to correct your posture when handling your baby during the day, reducing the risk of strain and pain. Blood circulation increases, improving the entire healing process, your milk flow increases, and your energy levels rise. The improvement of your overall-health makes you confident in dealing with your daily life and to enjoy it.Essential for starting a good practice is the teacher’s ability to adjust the session or certain exercises to your personal needs. Before beginning with postnatal yoga the teacher should ask you about complications during pregnancy and birth, how the baby was born (natural birth, caesarean section, any cuts or perineal ruptures), if you have experienced an easy or exhausting birth, and what kind of exercises you may have already done. During the session she (generally, postnatal yoga teachers are female) should walk around to have a close look at the students and to offer some adjustments or variations in order to increase the benefit of the exercises. Ideally, your teacher is a mum herself, because only then she knows exactly how you feel right now, and how to support you during this sensitive time, physically as well as mentally.

STEP BY STEP

As soon as your abdominal muscles are re-aligned properly and you have re-gained certain core strength (approx. six to eight weeks after childbirth), you can start with more powerful exercises. Your teacher will introduce more challenging variations of the exercises you have already done, and include a wide range of easy stretches, twists or dynamic movements for building up strength and stamina. Again, your teacher should have a close eye on your body to prevent you from overdoing. Step by step works out best. When you start too early with demanding yoga postures (or other exercises), you may harm yourself. Your ligaments and joints are still weaker than normal, which is caused by hormones within your body that are necessary for producing milk. Your muscles are still too long or too short to perform “normal” yoga poses without the risk of straining, and your spine is still to be straightened and strengthened. Exercises that involve your front abdominal muscles (rectus abdominis) must be chosen carefully, and should not be performed before your pelvic floor muscles are strong enough to keep your inner organs in position. Otherwise they may be pushed downwards, resulting in incontinence or even uterine prolapse. In general, it takes about six months until you can return to or start with a normal yoga class. This may vary in some cases, depending on your personal state of health and fitness. However, many women still love to meet their fellow mums in the postnatal class, like the idea to exercise together with their baby, or simply prefer doing the gentle yoga as long as possible. There is no need to rush.

MAKE THE MOST OF IT

It is not easy to establish a regular yoga practice at home during the early weeks of being a new mum. You have enough to do with caring for your baby and organizing your new life. Once you have established a daily routine, things change again due to the development of your child, and you need to start almost from scratch.Flexibility and patience are essential in a mum’s life, and a good amount of creativity, too. When practicing yoga you learn to accept things as they are. You increase your ability to “let go” and to be open for new things to come. You learn to listen to your body and to trust your intuition. The sooner you start, the easier it will be to find ways of practicing yoga during the day.In a good postnatal yoga class you not only learn practicing the exercises, but also how to integrate them into your daily routine. Why not relax and meditate while feeding your child? Why not including some stretches while playing with your baby? Why not practicing a bit of pelvic floor training or breathing while waiting at a red traffic light? Be creative. Be intuitive. Enjoy the moment – and make the most of it!