Looking back on my whole prenatal experience, it is very clear that yoga played a significant role in helping me feel my best. Almost everything about my body was changing at one point or another, but yoga helped me feel most like ME. A breath of fresh air in a time when you inherently feel the least like yourself.
In my experience, first trimester yoga was timid. I was so sick at first, it was nearly impossible to drag myself onto my mat at home, let alone to an actual yoga class!
When I did start back into yoga, I had a purely restorative practice. I had been so beaten down in body and spirit by 24/7 nausea that I really needed to be gentle. I had two couch cushions and a blanket as my props. My practice was pretty much an extension of sleeping, only better. It was wonderful.
By about 20 weeks, or halfway through my pregnancy, some switch was activated in me and I got my energy back. I needed a far more dynamic practice that would engage my muscles. I could feel my sweet boy inside of me and I knew I was breathing and moving for us both. I felt like a strong warrior mother who was no longer trodden down by the need to puke all the time. I carefully adjusted poses to accommodate my growing belly and changing body. Suddenly poses like uttkatasana and squat had more meaning and life than ever before. I felt my body and mind rejuvenated. I have such fond feelings when I think of this time. I felt so comfortable in my changing body just how it was right then.
Things got very busy for about the last eight weeks of my pregnancy when summer began, but I used yoga principles in ways I never thought I would. I painted my own toenails at 37 weeks and credit yoga with the flexibility to do that. I chose to use hypnobirthing during labor, which incorporates many poses, deep breathing, ujjayi, acupressure points, and affirmations, and I had a very positive experience with those.
Throughout this whole experience, I would look at my husband in amazement at how much he had NOT changed. That's all I had been doing for the last 9 months--watch myself pretty much evolve into something new. Isn't that shiva at her finest? I am so grateful to be a mother and to use my creative powers to bless my family members. Here's to this new time:)
