GUEST POST: YOGA FOR LABOUR AND BIRTH BY ALMON CASPERSZ

In preparation for the arrival of a new baby, many parents worry about items they need to buy and prepare. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in this materialistic world and to forget about the journey of labour and birth that you baby must take to arrive in your arms. Yoga can provide you with a range of tools to help you feel confident and knowledgeable in your ability to birth your baby, or support your partner, during this special yet sometimes uneasy time.

Two of the key tools are breathing practices and physical postures that help with the flow of labour and for birthing your baby more comfortably.

During labour and birth, the mother can be under an overwhelming amount of pain, both emotional and physical. Some believe that the best antidote to this pain is the woman’s instinctive breathing habit. A lot of us have however, lost our instinct for taking low, slow and deep breaths. Yoga can help us move away from shallow and erratic breaths towards a steady, circular and consisted rhythm of breath. Taking slow, complete exhales can help us manage pain and bring us to a calm and restful state.

As with the breath, many of us are no longer able to tune into our bodies physical needs and to move in response to these sensations. Yoga encourages us to check-in with our body and provides us with tools to build a strong, yet soft physique that can respond intuitively to these needs.

During labour, it may be useful to think about a progressive shift from active, upright postures, that help with the flow of labour, towards more restful, floor based positions as labour progresses. If contractions seem to lessen as labour progresses, it may also be useful to return to upright postures where the downward force of gravity means an easier birth journey for your baby.

Yoga offers a range of different breathing practices and physical postures for labour and birth. It is best to try these out during pregnancy, to see what your body responds best to and then to practice them with your partner. You will then have a toolbox to draw from and a trust that your body will remember what works best for you when the time comes.