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Jump to "Get Your Mulabandha On..."
Why Prenatal Yoga?
How this mind-body fitness practice can help you in your final months of pregnancy
by Rachel Sarah
 After my daughter’s easy birth – she came out two hours after I arrived at the hospital, with a record 10 minutes of pushing – I wanted to stand up and brag to the whole world. Of course, I wanted everyone to take a peek at my beautiful daughter; but I also wanted to share my secret: I credited prenatal yoga for my smooth birthing experience. And I’m not alone.
According to Jennifer Wolfe, a mother of one and a vinyasa yoga instructor in San Mateo, CA, in general, pregnant women who practice yoga have much shorter labors. She explains that, in addition to helping you with flexibility and overall fitness, certain aspects of yoga, such as breathing and meditation, can help ease the pain of labor.
“I’ve seen the whole spectrum, from women who do a lot of yoga to women who don’t do anything. And the women who do yoga have a much easier third trimester and childbirth,” says Wolfe, who is also a certified doula and has been with 130 women during labor.
In short, prenatal yoga is a great way to both prepare your body for labor – in the same way that you might train it for a marathon – and make childbirth go more smoothly. Moreover, it can help you feel better in the final, sometimes difficult, months of pregnancy. For me, yoga was a lifesaver during my last trimester when I was working at a desk for eight hours a day.
Whether you sign up for classes with a trained teacher (look for ones labeled “prenatal”) or follow prenatal yoga DVDs at home (see “Try It at Home,” p. 56), the physical poses you’ll practice called asanas, will help build stamina and improve circulation. Standing postures can strengthen your leg muscles; doing yoga’s many modified squats can increase blood flow to your pelvic floor, an area that will be key during labor. And there are more benefits as well.
MANAGE TENSION AND STRESS
Prenatal yoga exercises alleviate tightness around the pelvic floor and birth canal. So, when it comes time to give birth, the practice can “make labor easier, less painful, and quicker,” says Tracey Mallett, a Pasadena, CA, yoga instructor and mother of two children.
But pregnancy adds more than physical stress to your body, says Sara Holliday, a yoga instructor and mother of two sons from San Diego, CA. It can also take an emotional toll.
“First, you might be feeling that your body isn’t yours anymore,” says Holliday, who is also a licensed marriage and family therapist. “And often, there are a lot of fears, such as: Can I handle this? Am I going to be a good mom? How will my relationship change?”
So, in addition to helping women feel fit, Holliday says that yoga “is a great stress-reducer.”
In fact, researchers at Boston University School of medicine and Belmont, MA-based McLean Hospital found that practicing yoga may have a positive physical effect on the central nervous system. The results, release in May 2007, suggest that the yoga be considered as a possible treatment for depression and anxiety.
EASE BACK PAIN
Many women in their third trimester complain about back pain, specifically sciatica, the soreness in the lower back that can radiate down the buttocks and leg. “Your breasts get bigger and your belly gets bigger, so often you’re slumping forward and that can cause pain,” Wolfe says.
Adds Mallett, “The body’s center of gravity changes during pregnancy, which causes certain muscles to work harder to counteract.” On top of pain and discomfort in the lower back, this change in personal gravity can also make your hip flexors very tight, because the pelvis is tilted back. “Yoga addresses tightness in the hips and core stability, allowing the pelvis to stay more in its natural place,” Mallett says.
Yoga’s capability to relieve back pain can be important during labor, too. Certain positions can be done between contractions to bring relief. Standing in a simple wide leg pose was the only thing that relieved my labor back pain, as I clutched the nearest piece of furniture, breathed, and, yes, moaned. Instead of lying down and curling into myself, I was able to stretch and allow my baby to descend with the least amount of discomfort.
IMPROVE FOCUS AND CONCENTRATION
Meditation, an integral part of yoga, can enhance your ability to relax and concentrate, which is essential during labor. And breathing exercise, called pranayama, can help you find focus and manage contraction pain. During labor, “You can feel so out of control,” Holliday says. “So, using your breath is so calming, because it allows your mind to relax.”
As part of her own labor preparations, Holliday asked her husband to remind her to breathe – and he did. “He kept saying, ‘You can do this. Just keep your focus on the breath, honey,’” she says.
Practicing deep breathing regularly as part of your yoga routine is also a huge asset when it’s time to push. “Sometimes it feels like the baby is in your lungs,” Wolfe says. “The deep breathing you do in yoga helps expand the amount of room you have because it helps you expand your lung capacity.”
RECOVER MORE QUICKLY
Prenatal yoga experts are also quick to add an additional benefit to the practice: faster recuperation from labor. The instrctors interviewed here agree that when you’ve toned your muscles consistently during pregnancy, it’s often easier to return to your pre-baby body after giving birth.
Of course, how fast you get back into shape – after you’ve been given your doctor’s OK – depends on a number of factors, including whether you’re doing a gentle practice or something more strenuous, like power yoga, “I’ve trained women who are back to their pre-pregnancy clothes within a month,” Holliday says. So, while her goal is to help women feel “fit in mind and body,” she’s also thrilled when they contact her after giving birth to say how quickly they’ve “bounced back.”
Pregnancy, September 2007, Vol. 8, No. 10, pages 54-59.
Get Your Mula Bandha on…
by Michelle Shellhaas, PT, DPT, CYT
“…gently engaging the throat, navel and root locks…” Ever wonder exactly what the bandhas are? You are probably not alone. The bandhas, or locks, are regularly referred to during the course of a class, but sometimes lack a thorough explanation. Bandhas are physical practices that can lead to internal awareness. Today, we will discuss how to begin correct physical application of the mula bandha and why it is important from a movement/posture perspective.
In its most basic form, mula bandha is a gentle uplifting of the pelvic floor muscles. These muscles are located between the pubic bone and the coccyx, or tailbone. We are often most familiar with their social roles of “holding back” gas, or deferring the urge to have a bowel movement or urinate until we have reached the appropriate facilities. When we contract these muscles while sitting, the tissue overlying them (the labia or scrotum) will gently, or strongly, lift away from our seat. If we feel our skin pressing into our seat, that is the opposite motion.
These muscles assist us in our practice and in our daily life by acting as part of our “core”. Just as we become more stable, powerful and aligned in our postures when we engage the abdominals (uddiyana banda), we multiply this effect by engaging our pelvic floor muscles, our mula bandha. Conscious practice of the mula bandha, as with all bandhas, improves the strength, endurance and resting activity of the associated muscles. This training effect, in turn, translates into muscles that are more responsive with less conscious effort.
How do we know if we are reaping the physical benefits of mula bandha? A healthy, well-trained pelvic floor is associated with decreased low back pain, improved balance, improved control of our bladder and bowel functions and with enhanced sexual sensation and function.
Article contributed by Michelle Shellhaas, PT, DPT, CYT, owner of Shellhaas Physical Therapy: Physical Therapy Between the Navel and the Knees. Serving women and men with difficulties related to continence, sexual pain and dysfunction and women who are pregnant and recently pregnant. www.shellhaaspt.com, michelleshellhaas@hotmail.com or 303.810.9065
If you are still wondering about your mula bandha practice, or associated functions, talk with your teacher, or feel free to contact the author of this article.
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