I just signed up for a a Candlelight Prenatal Yoga Series at the yoga studio across the street from our condo. It was a last-minute decision (um, I pulled on my yoga pants at 6:20 p.m. and the class starts at 6:30 p.m.) -- But I'm soooo glad I signed up!It's a small class of about seven women. We all range in due dates, from a woman who is barely 15 weeks, me at 15 1/2 weeks, another at 17 weeks, 18 weeks, 23 weeks, 27 weeks and finally, 32 weeks!
It was such a relaxing and peaceful class. For any of you who are pregnant and looking for exercise, I totally recommend yoga. And a prenatal class is a great way to learn what you can and can't do in traditional yoga.
Here are a few things to keep in mind, for those of you who are huge yoginis:
* Do not lay on your stomach. This means no up-dogs, cobra or any other move that requires you to smoosh your tummy. Bad!
* No deep twisting. You can do modified twists where you keep your belly forward and twist only your arm and back, but you absolutely do NOT want to twist your belly at any time!
* No jumping. So when you are in down dog and the teacher says to "step or hop to the front of your mat," you ALWAYS need to step. Take a big lunge step with one leg, and then step the other leg forward. Take your time.
* Maintain space for your belly. In any pose you do, always make sure you are making enough room for your belly so that you do not smoosh yourself. So when you are standing up and folding over to touch your toes, a better way to do it is to spread your legs to shoulder width, bend your knees and place your elbows on your knees (camper's pose).
* After 15-16 weeks, you can't lie flat on your back. Ways to avoid doing this are to put a bolster or rolled blanked under your bum so that you are not flat but on an incline. This allows you to do a modified version of legs up the wall.
* Be careful balancing. When you have a big belly, there is NO SHAME in standing next to a wall when doing balancing poses like tree pose so that you can use the wall to steady yourself.
With all those things you can NOT do, you may be wondering why would anyone WANT to even try yoga? It's very peaceful and allows you to relax and appreciate what is happening with your body. It's also encouraging to see other women who are also in the same state as you.
One thing we did last week in prenatal yoga that I really liked is we all sat cross legged and put one hand on our heart and one hand on our belly. Our teacher then told us to feel the heartbeat of our own heart and imagine connecting our heart to the heart of our baby through our hands.
Another thing we did was to chant the sound "Om," and our teacher explained that our baby can hear our voice and also feel the vibration of our voice and it's soothing to them. Wow!
It was very special to take that moment to remember what an amazing thing is taking place in our own bodies. I hope this encourages you to try some prenatal yoga!
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