We’ve been teaching Postnatal Yoga for over 6 years! Here are 10 things we have learned:
1. Women need rest
2. Women can heal themselves, if they take the time they need
3. Women rarely get the time they need
4. Women need to be with women
5. It’s never too late to start
6. It is possible to close tummy muscles
7. It is possible to cure stress incontinence
8. It is possible to recover from prolapse
9. There are practices that can help with exhaustion
10. It is possible to find yourself again
1. Women need rest
After a woman has given birth, she needs time for her nervous system to become grounded again. This means rest. In traditional cultures women take ‘total’ rest for 1 week, followed by a second week ‘on the sofa.’ The first 28 days are a critical investment in the future emotional and physical health of mum and baby. This requires active support of family/friends and a certain mindset. Our need for rest goes on, however, for much longer than the initial 28 days. In Ayurveda, the sister science of Yoga, they say that how you treat yourself in the first 42 days after birth will determine your health for the next 42 years of your life.
2. Women can heal themselves, if they take the time they need
No matter what kind of birth you’ve had, it is possible to heal. Healing happens on many levels: emotional as well as physical. Tears, cuts & stitches, parted tummy muscles, weakened pelvic floor, mastitis, stress incontinence, haemorroids and back trouble are all common postnatal issues. So are exhaustion, depression and a sense of loss of self. Postnatal yoga can help you remedy physical issues and create the space you need to integrate your birth experience so that you can feel revitalised again.
3. Women rarely get the time they need
In the West, women often don’t have the help they need to thoroughly rest after giving birth. Added to this, our mothers and grandmothers are not actively teaching us practices to close the body and heal after birth (as are still taught in traditional cultures). Because of this, women are having more problems, physiologically, emotionally and mentally following birth and in the months, years and decades to come.
4. Women need to be with women
Collectively, women of different ages and diverse backgrounds have always shared knowledge & practices in a community; about how to raise children, how to heal ourselves and deal with relationship issues. When women get together, oxytocin is released; this is the bonding & love hormone (it is also released during and after birth, and when we make love and orgasm!). Oxytocin is a social hormone that promotes trust; it makes us feel good about ourselves and others and this effects our ability to be well. With our society moving at a faster pace and in a more detached manner, it is too easy to become isolated in our homes as new mums. Isolation can make us feel lonely and it can create a breakdown in our community. Our babies need us to be in a community to feel well.
5. It’s never too late to start
If you are thinking: “But I didn’t do any of these practices after giving birth!” the good news is that it is never too late! If we start later, it may be necessary to do the practices for longer, but they will still take effect. When grandmothers come to class to support a daughter/daughter-in-law or grandchild, they are often moved when the practices take them back to their own birth experiences from long ago; they instinctively recognise the value of these practices.
6. It is possible to close parted tummy muscles
Women used to be taught how to check whether they have a gap in their tummy muscles after pregnancy; we even used to be offered 2 or 3 physiotherapy sessions in hospitals during the first 28 days to help women close the gap! Now it is barely looked at postnatally and GPs are often fatalistic, particulary when women have carried multiple babies. However, for women who have a gap, it can cause great distress and make everyday activities such as lifting older children and carrying shopping difficult. It can eat away at our confidence and lead to us feeling less strong, emotionally and physically. Women often come to Postnatal Yoga with gaps of between 1-5 finger wide, below and/or above the navel. By half way through the course, it has usually halved; the residual gap usually takes a bit longer to close, and more patience and a dedicated (but gentle) practice is prescribed.
7. It is possible to cure stress incontinence
I remember standing up for the first time after giving birth to my first baby and not being able to control my bladder. I can also remember weeing on my partner during sex some months later. By the time I had my second baby I had developed mild stress incontinence; coughing, sneezing and certainly trampolining were not my best friends. Yet within 9 days of starting the Postnatal Yoga practices I now teach, these issues were remedied. Since then I have discovered that some of the practices must be done for life, otherwise old weaknesses can eventually come back. As we get older our pelvic floor tissue naturally weakens. The strains, tears and pressure that have been placed on our pelvic floor through our births come out. This is why women develop incontinence and prolapse issues later in their lives. We use Postnatal Yoga practices to re-awaken and tone our pelvic floors now, and discover a level of sensation and control in that part of our bodies that we previously might not have had! This is the golden opportunity that Postnatal Yoga presents. Once awakened, we can incorporate our ‘Postnatal’ practices into a more general women’s hatha yoga practice, to keep up and maintain our pelvic health.
8. It is possible to recover from prolapse
Prolapse can affect the urethra, vagina and/or rectum immediately post birth or in the years to follow. Tiny ligaments holding up the tissues between passageways or supporting the whole pelvic sling can become damaged. There is much that can be done to assist in their rehabilitation, even if other help such as surgery is needed. Studies have shown that 10 years on from birth, women go on to develop the same problems with their pelvic floor whether their babies are born vaginally or through c-section. If you think you have have weaknesses in this area, it is important to start working on them now whilst your tissues are more responsive. Don’t wait until you are older as your tissue naturally becomes weaker.
9. There are practices that can help with exhaustion
Lack of sleep, rest and recuperation often leads to exhaustion in new mums. One mum writes:
“My baby was not sleeping well when I started postnatal yoga and I was struggling with exhaustion. I was unable to nap or drift off easily when my baby was asleep as my nervous system was in overdrive since giving birth. Postnatal yoga allowed me to take some time for myself to relax and revitalise. It’s hard to articulate the positive impact it had, but I left class each week feeling calm, rested and more like myself. Being with other mums in similar situations was reassuring and Katie is a great teacher who intuitively knows exactly what you need. The deep relaxation she does was particularly amazing, I miss it!”
In Postnatal Yoga we use a deep relaxation practice called Yoga Nidra (deep yogic sleep). For 45 minutes, you follow the sound of my voice with your head rested on a buckwheat pillow, a supportive bolster under your knees, blankets all around you and an eye pillow covering your eyes. A short period of time in this state of relaxation is equivalent to many, many hours sleep. Many women report this as the most valuable practice in helping them through their first year of motherhood.
10. It is possible to find yourself again
The birth of our first child marks the beginning of an utterly transformative process which nothing can prepare us for. In the words of one mum:
“Nothing quite prepares you for how mentally and physically draining it can be to have a tiny dependent human being relying on you 24/7. From being in charge of your own time and body, you are suddenly the provider of sustenance, warmth and entertainment every second of the day. Spending just a couple of hours a week thinking about yourself is amazingly liberating after having a baby. After major surgery or even a straightforward labor, postnatal yoga gives you time to start focusing on getting your body into ‘repair’ mode, making you feel stronger and more able to face the world. It gives you back your sense of self.”
If you are interested in finding out more about our Postnatal Healing Workshop on Saturday 22nd February 2020, 1.30-4.30pm in Newark-on-Trent :: CLICK HERE :: *SPACES*