4 Ways Yoga Prepares You for Birth

So many people have asked me:  "Does yoga really make birth easier?"

My answer is always yes, Yes, YES!  The practice of yoga makes much of life easier, and the more we practice, the more we can rely on the tools of yoga to back us up in challenging situations.  When you look at Yoga as a way of engaging with life, as a lifestyle, then the gifts are much greater than physical benefits.  However, when it comes to the intense physical changes of pregnancy and childbirth, physical benefits cannot be understated.

1.  The Power of the Breath:  A large component of my prenatal yoga classes is the breath.  Noticing how the breath is naturally moving inside the body is a huge clue to how we are feeling internally.  If we are stressed or rushed, the breath will be fast and short.  If we are frightened we may hold our breath completely.  But, when we are calm the breath moves slowly, deeply, fully.

We can use these simple clues of the breath to change our state of mind and physical sensations in the body.  For example, when a contraction is painful a woman may try to hold back.  They may feel frightened and literally hold their breath.  A woman with a foundation of yoga will observe her body doing this and then through reminders of their own or of a labor companion she'll remember to deepen the breath.  These deep breaths will relax her body, helping her feel calm through the contractions, and physically soften her muscles to open up for baby.

In my Prenatal Yoga Classes we really get to know our breath.  I emphasize feeling how the breath moves in different positions so that Mamas notice the difference in their breathing from sitting down meditating to moving through very dynamic poses.  The idea is to create an equanimity in the breath no matter what is happening externally.  At all the births I've attended the word most commonly said by midwives and doulas in labour is "Breathe".  It is much easier to tap into a deep, calming breath when it has been practiced regularly prior to Birth.

2.  Moving for Comfort:  Prenatal Yoga can really teach a Mama how to create comfort in her body.  Many Mamas that come to my classes complain of back pain, sluggish digestion or uncomfortable sleep prior to class.  These same Mamas report major relief from back pain, smoother digestion and improved sleep the night after class.  This is a HUGE testament to how simple yoga asanas create ease and comfort in the body.

This idea of moving for comfort easily transfers to birth itself.  Gently swaying the hips or rocking on hands and knees in labor can dramatically reduce pressure on the hips and low back.  With almost every contraction of my labour I got into an all fours position and swayed my hips back and forth.  This was just as vital in easing pain as was my labour companion's hands on my back.  I've held many Mamas as they lean forward during contractions.  Moving in early labour helps encourage contractions to pick up.  Moving right up until birth helps baby find an ideal position, and good positioning of baby also can reduce pain in birth.

When a Mama can find a comfortable (or at least a MORE comfortable position) for birth they are able to relax and open easily.  In prenatal yoga classes we learn a variety of positions that can be used in birth to create ease.

3.  Setting Intention:  Intention is a cornerstone of yoga that differentiates it from other forms of exercise.  I have found intention to be vital for creating a positive attitude.  As one of my mentors, Stephanie Dawn says, Intention creates a pathway for consciousness to flow.  Setting an intention is as simple as asking yourself "What do I really want from this experience?".  I encourage Mamas to practice this through out pregnancy, or even prior to conception if you are preparing to conceive.  This is an incredible way to tune in with your womb or spirit baby and ASK THEM what they want.  Daily intentions provide a solid place for pregnant Mamas to turn back to when they feel confused or stressed.    In my life I have found that when things don't work out as I wanted, many times I did not have a clear intention for the experience.

One Mama I worked shared this with me: "My intention was to open, and I visualized baby moving down and out throughout the last weeks of my pregnancy.  I had a fast and relatively short labor for a first time mom and I know it was because of my clear intentions".

When birth is an intentional experience, with clear desires and visions laid out before labor begins, a family is most likely going to have the birth experience that they want.

4.  Opening the Pathway:  Regular prenatal yoga practice literally prepares the body for birth. With carefully selected asanas the pelvic floor is widened, strengthened, and an awareness of how to open the birth canal is gained.  There is a delicate balance in prenatal yoga of muscle strength, and organically opening.  We expand the space in the body.  With these fine-tuned asanas the birth canal and whole body is made ready for birth.  My prenatal yoga classes also emphasize opening the heart, because no matter how a Mama births, her heart will be opened in ways unimaginable before.

Do you want to engage in this potent practice with me?  

A 6-week series of Heart-Centered Prenatal Yoga classes begins the end of the month.  Click Here for more info on Facebook, or email me and I'll send you the details.  

Space is limited and a special price is available if you register by 11/10/12.

practice for life

This morning I had the joy and privilege of an hour to myself.  I took a long shower and spread out my yoga mat in front of the window.  I looked out to the South, the frost on the trees from last nights snow, and I looked at my alter: a small Ganesha, a yellow candle and a few crystals.  I added a cup of fresh coffee to my alter as an offering.

Too often since the little man has been born, my practice has been for 1 or 2 reasons:  to ease my body or to prepare for teaching a class.  The scene this morning was set to invoke inner peace, and I was able to pinpoint an intention for my practice.  It felt good to call out what I want, to put reason behind my movements.  "To cultivate courage", was my heart's request for practice.  I moved through standing poses, back bends, and twists, firing up muscle energy along the way.

After 30 minutes, I sat down on the mat.  I could hear Sly fussing in the next room and pushed myself to end practice.  I stretched out my legs and laid down to actually take Svasana (I always tell my students to never skip this part, and here I am admitting that I regularly skip this part.  These days, I do.  However, I really think I'd benefit greatly from a practice of only Svasana!).  My feet flopped apart and I felt my right toes brush against something.  The coffee cup.  No, I couldn't have knocked it over!  But, yes, Yes I did.

I'm up and dabbing away.  My mind and body, primed and focused from asana move swiftly into clean-up mode.  But my heart was pumping a little faster than I like, and I was feeling quite dumb for ever putting that cup on my floor-alter in the first place.  I assed, acted, and re-assed the situation.  An interruption.  A reminder that practicing Yoga is practicing for life.  Not just the parts of life that are beautiful or that others deem "great" or "worthy".  Yoga practice is for all life.  It's a practice to prepare me for the mundane of cleaning carpets.  Or changing diapers.  Because, right now, that is my life.  I clean up, and check in with my heart.  I feel called to sit back down and rest before tackling my day.  To slow down.  Apparently, part of courage asks us to be slow (to think before I speak), yet not stuck, (act!).  So, I check in and slow it down.  I'm thankful for that moment.

Then, I'm up and on the move again, mat rolled up for the day.  My babe is squirming, refusing a nap.  He rolls over and crawls away when I try to dress him.  He wants to chew on everything that isn't made for chewing.  Do I have the courage to be patient with him?  To change my own routine?

I could go on and on with examples in my life where my yoga practice is put to the test.  Sometimes, it truly is for large and great challenges.  Mostly it's ordinary.  Occasionally, it's ugly.  Here I am, though, with Grace offering me the chance to DO.  To BE yoga.  I am reminded of something I heard in Yoga Teacher Training, a few years ago (I thought this was from Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, but looking today I could not find it.  Perhaps, it is just how I heard it then).  The idea I recall is that you (You!  And me, too!) can attain samadhi (enlightenment) simply by surrendering everything to God.  But, if that is just too much, too challenging, then here are these practices (asana, pranayama, meditation, chanting and more) to help.  As simple as surrendering, or as tough as a dedicated practice.  It is both.

This call to BE and DO and LIVE in yoga is at once a practice that puts my mat away and pulls it back out.  Everyday now, I want to pull it out.  With out skipping the stillness of Svasana.  I need to practice to deal with real life.  Because it is tough to find Grace in cleaning up dog poop, but I know Grace is there.  The more I practice, the more I see that that's the real yoga.

Here's to LIVING yoga.  For me, that means making more time on my mat to be better equipped for the "realness" off the mat.

Everything is Yoga

This is a post for yoga-junkies.

Everything is Yoga.  The more I live, since I've stepped into this practice, the more this is true.  Yoga is everywhere, in everything.  It resides in all emotions, in each moment, in each particle of my being.  There it is: an opportunity to live with greater intention, deeper awareness, to uncover pure desire.  Everything alive is binding, yoking, to Life itself.  And we can say that Life itself, is the Divine itself.  Oh Yeah.  I'll yoke to that.


This is a radical view, that everything is Yoga.  Everything?  No way!  Oh, YES way, I say.  To cry, to laugh, to feel boredom, anger, overwhelmed or focused - it's all Yoga.  Each emotion teaches us, helps us refine our goals, and know, really know, who we are.

I hear crickets singing their song.  Chirping, buzzing, doing their heart's delight.  That's Yoga.
I see leaves crinkle up, trees embracing the chilly weather, letting go of what they do not need.  That's Yoga.
I smell onions browning, chocolate melting, savory and sweet preparing to enter my body, nourish my cells.  That's Yoga.
I feel little hands holding onto my arms.  A tiny nose rubbing back and forth on my chest.  A baby clinging to his gateway into the earthly realms.  That's Yoga.
I taste clean water, in the absence of other flavors I can taste "clean" and "fresh" and "pure".  That's Yoga.

Oh, and that wonderful movement on my mat each day, opening and softening and strengthening my body... Yeah, that's Yoga too.

I am a Mother now.  The opportunities to practice on my mat are more limited than ever before.  Yet, I feel that my Yoga is deeper.  Being a parent requires awareness in the sharpest and subtlest of ways.  At the same time.  All the things I aim to practice on my mat: patience, perseverance, discipline, softness and strength, a free mind and open heart;  Motherhood teaches these qualities more than my mat can.

I am helping my baby boy's free spirit take root in his body.  Every time we step onto our mats isn't that what we are trying to do - harness our spirits within our bodies?  Make a deeper connection between body and spirit?  We become embodied in this life to enjoy our spirits.  It is fascinating to observe and assist a tiny being with this process of becoming embodied.  Our bodies are the tools by which we know our spirits, and through this union, we can know our deepest desires.  Body and Spirit and "I" are yoked.  That's Yoga.

I enjoyed my first Yoga class last night since Sly's been born.  We focused on sensitivity.  I am so thankful that this practice allows, and encourages us to be more sensitive.  To be more of who we are.  To taste, touch, listen, smell and see fully.  Like a baby.  Doing it all for the first time, every time.  I yoke to that.


I offer much thanks and love for my Anusara Yoga teachers for helping me uncover and know these truths.  And much, much thanks to Life, the great teacher, for veiling and unveiling, spinning the web of knowing, taking me on this wild ride, so that I may experience the tangibility of Yoga.

Atha! Now!

Atha is the sanskrit word for now, and I know it from the first sutra of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras: ATHA YOGANUSANAM Now is the time to practice Yoga! or Now is the practice of Yoga being made! (The exclamation points are my own interpretation because, well, I believe they are worthy!)

Oh, Now, is never a stronger word than when you are a mama! Days are so full, my moments are packed, and packed in the best way with learning, giggling, and cuddling bursting the seams. With all this love surrounding our sweet baby, the moments alone are few and far between. I share all my space these days, and am so blessed to do so.

Early this morning, however, I saw a window of time that could be all mine, and that word, Atha, Now, came into my mind. I crept out of bed, leaving a sleeping babe to snuggly with his Papa. I stood in a steamy shower, letting the hot water massage my shoulders. Then, I rolled out my orange sticky mat, and enjoyed it all to my Self. Most times on my mat these days I am accompanied by a wiggly, sometimes fussy, sometimes giggly little baby. I focus on his happiness and my physical well-being at the same time. But today, alone, I had the opportunity to just soak in me, rest my spirit, and truly have an inner-body experience.

So thankful that I seized the Now-ness of the morning. It made all the difference in the day. It helped me to be more present in all the shared moments that followed.