Pain Relief & Labor Support- Cat/Cow to the Rescue!

I know you have done Cat/ Cow before. Hands and knees on the floor, pressing your heart upwards as you exhale and as you inhale, pulling up through your tailbone & arching your heart skywards. Maybe you've done it in a yoga class or after an aerobics class at your gym. But doing Cat/ Cow during pregnancy has a whole new dimension to add to you and your baby right now.

When you have to get up yet again for the 3rd time in one night, try a few minutes of this pose on the floor. Keep your eyes closed & lights out and watch how your little soccer player leaves your bladder alone and settles back down, letting you relax enough to go back into sleep.

Not only does this posture relieve back pain & pressure and give you a nice stretch along your entire spine, but when the baby gets heavy, and it will get very heavy, this posture might become your best friend.

Because, this posture, my friends, will help you to give birth.

As you get closer to term, and you feel the head begin to engage deeply down into your pelvis, simple things like getting in and out of the car become more of a challenge. By getting down on your hands and knees and flexing the spine & pulling the heart up, not crunching in your low back, you can help alleviate some of this pressure.

Notice that when you rock up through the tailbone, you can actually open your hips too, flaring outwards to open up your pelvic girdle. This opening action becomes especially important while you labor as you really, really want your pelvis to open up from the inside to it's greatest extent. You can feel here how the baby falls forward with a little gravity, relieving pressure on the cervix. Cat/Cow also allows you to bear down more easily and with more power on your hands and knees than you ever could dream of lying on your back. Midwives worldwide recommend mothers to labor in this posture to help move the baby into proper birthing position (with the baby facing towards your spine) & to relieve the pain of back labor (so called when the back of baby's head is pressing into your tailbone. Excruciating, trust me!).

On your hands and knees you are actually helping to relieve pain & pressure not only in your body, but also for your little one. You are creating space in a tiny place where centimeters count.

Need another reason to get down on the floor?

Birth is hard on both of you and the more you can do to keep both of you oxygenated, relaxed and moving, the better you both will feel and the easier labor will be on you and your baby.

Be well & Sat Nam- Kristen

Following up on the last post, Leg cramps are excruciating, and are all too common during Pregnancy. If you wake up with them, flex your feet upwards & stretch through your heels, NEVER point your foot. This will only make the cramp worse.

A super simple stretch that might also be useful for you, is to place the balls of your feet on the edge of a thick phone book. Go up high onto your toes, then come back down again all the way past the edge towards the floor. This counter stretch should feel pretty amazing. Keep going up and down on your toes to strengthen your ankles & calves and enjoy a deep stretch all the way into the tendons.

Make sure to stretch your legs out well before bed if you have been on your feet all day or done lots of walking.

Add these few practices, & I think you will sleep much better tonight!

Sat Nam- Kristen