Are you pregnant and looking to safely modify your yoga practice for pregnancy? Or perhaps you had your baby a few months ago and want to make sure you stay safe as you return to your yoga practice.
Read on for our Yoga Mama tips!
Practice Tips for Mamas
Tips for Taking a Non-Prenatal Flow Class While Pregnant
The general rule of thumb is "don't squish baby!" So if you feel your tummy getting squished in any pose, either adjust the pose or add a prop to stop the squishing, or skip the pose altogether and replace it with something that feels better!
Modifying Sun Salutations
During the plank/chaturanga/backbend part, come to table and take a cat/cow instead.
Widen Your Stance
In any pose where you feel like your belly is getting squished into your thighs, widen your stance to make space for baby! Just be careful not to throw yourself off balance. This comes up most often in forward folds and lunges.
Use All the Props
When in doubt, use all the props! We love props, and they can absolutely improve your prenatal yoga experience. Our prenatal classes are full of great recommendations for prop usage, and you can take those recommendations with you to other classes! Adding blocks under hands, arms, and forehead is a great way to make extra space for baby. Blankets are an easy way to add padding under knees or any other body part.
Keep Twists Open and Gentle
Twists are ok during pregnancy, as long as you don't make them too deep or squish baby with them. In seated twists, try to keep your belly button pointing forward and just twist through your shoulders and neck.
In poses where you're facing your tummy directly towards another body part to twist (like a low lunge twist), twist *away* from the body part instead. For example, in a low lunge twist or revolved pyramid pose, plant the same palm as your front foot and lift the opposite arm, so that you're twisting away from your front knee instead of towards it.
No Lying On Your Belly
This one's pretty straighforward, right? ;-) Early on in your pregnancy (first trimester), it's fine to lie on your belly if you don't feel like you're squishing anything. If you're not sure, better safe than sorry - just avoid it. If you're in a non-Prenatal class and teacher cues anything that involves lying on the belly, it will usually be some kind of a backbend. So you can come to table pose and take a cat cow or puppy pose instead.
Avoid Deep Backbends
Avoid deep backbends by keeping backbends in your upper back. Think about keeping your hips stacked above your knees instead of pressing them forwards, and lifting your chest to create an upper backbend. For instance, in camel, instead of reaching for your heels, plant your palms on your low back.
Avoid Belly-Up Core Work
Belly-up core exercises are a known cause of diastatic recti, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be doing any core work at all! Try working on the deeper muscles in the transverse abdominus and obliques rather than your frontal core with belly-down core poses like bear, plank, and forearm plan. If a teacher offers a belly-up core pose like boat, or a similar belly-up exercise to work on core, take a plank or forearm plank instead. Or skip it altogether!
Avoid Lying Flat on Your Back
Use blocks and a bolster to stay reclined at an angle (semi-reclined), rather than flat on your back, especially later in pregnancy. If you lie flat on your back, the weight of your growing body can compress key veins. A semi-reclined posture relieves this tension. Of course, if reclining fully still feels good for you, go for it.
Above All: Tune In To Your Body!
Listen to your body. As you progress further along in your pregnancy, your body will change and some poses / movements will start to become uncomfortable, and others may feel more accessible. Every visit to the mat may feel different, and that's ok! Just be sure you're making the adjustments you need to your practice to honor those changes and keep yourself, and baby, safe and comfortable.
Vinyasa yoga is a warming practice; it can create heat in both your body and the surrounding room. Avoid overheating by modifying poses whenever it feels right, drinking water, or taking a brief break in the lobby.
Tips for Returning to Yoga
After Having a Baby
Tips For Returning to The Mat
Giving birth is an incredible and significant accomplishment for your body to achieve. It's natural for your body to change after going through such a huge effort - sometimes significantly, and sometimes permanently. Honor those changes by listening to your body and adjusting your practice accordingly, rather than expecting or forcing it to behave how it used to before doing such a big and wonderful thing.
Cultivating an active gratitude practice for your body's strength and ability to bring life into the world can be a wonderful way to help keep the ego at bay during this time of big change.
Move deliberately, try to be really in-tune with your body and how it feels as you practice, especially if you had a consistent practice before or during pregnancy. Tuning in can be challenging as it forces you to acknowledge that your body and practice have changed, but also the healthiest way for you to learn how your body has changed and adjust your practice so that it can continue to serve you as effectively as possible.
Start at the most foundational yoga class level, even if you had a rigorous practice before baby. There have been a lot of changes in your body, and starting off on a good foundation is the best way to ensure your body heals and grows stronger in safe and healthy ways.
While we do cue belly-down postures in our postnatal classes, we always have options. If these are uncomfortable for you, let us know before class, and/or feel free to skip these poses and hang out in child's pose or your favorite seated poses.
You may find discomfort:
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1) If you had a Cesarean birth, the area around your scar could be tender.
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2) If you are breastfeeding/pumping, it may be bothersome for your chest to be pressed up against the floor.
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If you have some pelvic floor dysfunction or you still feel like you’re recovering in the pelvic area, you may find that Horse Squat (aka Goddess Pose) and Yogi Squat (Malasana) poses are uncomfortable and put a lot of pressure on your pelvic floor.
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Tip: Use blocks under bum for support in Malasana, or take a star pose instead of sinking down into Goddess.
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Tip: Pay extra attention to engaging your pelvic floor.
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The transitions from Plank to Chaturanga, and from Upward Facing Dog to Downward Facing Dog are incredibly core-challenging even when you haven’t had a baby! These transitions can become unsafe if you’re coming to practice with abdominal separation, or can even exacerbate the separation. You can move through Table pose in either of those transitions to minimize putting pressure on your abdominal wall.
The hormone relaxin that caused your joints to be relaxed and looser during pregnancy is still kicking around. So you can still expect any injuries prior to pregnancy, or any pregnancy aches and pains to continue for a while. You may have even exacerbated some during pregnancy!
General Wellness Tips
Please ensure that your doctor or midwife has approved you to return to physical activity. This usually happens at your 6-week postpartum appointment, but can sometimes take longer.
If possible, please have your provider check you for diastasis recti (separation of the abdominal muscles during pregnancy). This is actually VERY common, and it’s good to know what degree of separation you may be working with as you return to yoga.
If you did not ask your provider to check you, please try to self-evaluate using the YouTube video here. If you find that you think your separation is 3- or 4-finger widths, then it’s advisable for you to see your provider or a physical therapist before coming back into yoga.
If you have pelvic floor dysfunction or pelvic organ prolapse, please 1) follow guidelines from your provider or physical therapist about returning to activity, and 2) inform your yoga teacher. Please note: we are NOT medical professionals and you should NOT use yoga as your only regimen to “fix” any of these issues.