Exercise during Pregnancy?

Dear Monica,

I can understand your confusion. This work is developmental in several areas, particulary pregnancy. First of all, I hope you will take a deep breath and understand that you are not at any risk. Whether or not you wear a pessary depends mostly on your comfort level. Doctors prescribe them and I can't see that they would do any real harm. They're tough on vaginal tissues, though, so if you are wearing one I hope you can remove it at night and let your tissues breathe.

Posture and diet are the two most critical factors here and I urge you to implement these changes slowly into your life. You don't have to make sweeping diet changes, but do your very best to include plenty of leafy greens, fresh fruit, and essential fats. You say you can do the posture, but if you slowly try to do it whenever you think about it, this is how you will pull your musculoskeletal system into correct tension throughout.

I do not believe breastfeeding is a risk factor at all for prolapse, quite the contrary. Breastfeeding tones the uterus and should be a benefit.

I am still formulating my ideas around exercise. There are several good books on yoga for pregnancy and many of the asanas are fine during pregnancy. In my own book nothing would be contraindicated except the sitting head-to-knees posture. I would not start running now if you were not previously a runner, but would certainly walk everyday using the posture.

I am a student of kriya yoga, and my twice-daily program (which is a breath-work and meditation program that only contains some hatha-type movements)has been perhaps the most instrumental in turning my disorder around. The issue I'm wrestling with currently concerning both Pilates and hatha yoga is that they are both a more recent and an ancient tradition created by and for the mens' body. Women have a completely different "core" than men, a reality I don't believe is thoroughly addressed in many programs. The daughter of the most famous yoga teacher in the world understood this and deliniated several postures that are harmful for prolapse.

I don't have all the pieces put together yet for all women, Monica, but I do want to stress that prolapse is a postural problem and that the earlier you understand this and begin to address it the better. I hope you will read The Labor Progress Handbook (see resources) and relax in the fact that you can have a wonderful natural pregnancy and delivery. I nursed my son all the way through my second pregnancy, by the way, and for another 18 months after that, which he still has memories of!

I hope I have answered your concerns adequately and I encourage as much dialogue as we can create from all the expecting and new moms around these issues.

Wishing you well,

Christine

Dear Monica:

I have had a really bad problem with binge eating during my lifetime. It's been arrested for the past fifteen years so what I eat is a very important part of keeping it arrested. I am not able to embrace the completely natural and clean diet that Christine advocates but my diet is very good compared to most people and it's much better than if I was binge eating crap. I have to be careful to not trigger the binge eating by making sudden changes in my diet and so I am taking a balanced approach to the diet such as Christine mentioned with lots of fresh and whole foods and essential oils, etc. I do take some supplements because I do not have adequate access to properly grown foods.

The point is, I am getting very good results with using the posture even though I'm 55, have lifted weights and run for the past fifteen years and have had prolapse issues since the birth of my son 28 years ago and I don't eat a perfect diet. I had my doubts, but I am really becoming convinced it is an issue of posture. Do your best, but go for the balance Christine suggests. We can move toward perfection but it's a journey for most of us and not a destination we where we can say we have arrived. I feel so happy for you to learn about this at your age. I've been fighting off surgical recommendations for years and had no support from anyone but my husband and son until I found this site and thank God I did. -Chris

Monica and Christine,

I, too, was wondering about yoga after seeing that one post. The pregnancy yoga video I have is called the method. Most of the work in the beginning is done in seated postures, cross legged and legs out in front. It has lots of rotations around and stretching. I am assuming we want to stray from anything that squishes our insides down.
>
>Posture and diet are the two most critical factors here and
>I urge you to implement these changes slowly into your life.

I am still not entirely certain if I am doing the posture correctly, but when I make sure my upper body pulled back and down and my head straight and my lower back curved, if I sneeze-- I feel none of the pressure I used to feel. Diet in pregnancy has always been an issue for me because so much sounds yucky! :) My goal is to make sure I'm getting enough fiber and liquid for now. I found two great cereals that provide 10 grams of fiber each. One is organic optimum powerbreakfast and the other is kashi good friends. I am also trying to squat when I have to relieve myself, which is not easy. I'm balancing myself on the toilet seat. I'll have to seat what other solutions John may have since my bathroom will not accomodate anything else in it (it's 5'x8'--tiny!!!).

>
>Breastfeeding tones the
>uterus and should be a benefit.

I am hoping that after birth, I can nurse mainly while lying on my side in the beginning weeks so as the uterus contracts back to normal size, my other organs may be encouraged to return to their normal places without fighting gravity. I am also planning on lying on my stomach a lot--any suggestions on how or if pillow support should be used would be appreciated-- while doing kegals. Here's my thought process: the organs fall back into their original place when I'm on my stomach and the kegals stiumulate circulation and may encourage my organs to pull back up. The circulation will help stiumulate healing to any sores in the perenium that resulted from birth. I will be doing no housework or lifting for the first 6 weeks as I know my balance will need work getting back to normal and my abs and back may be weak.

>but would certainly walk everyday using
>the posture.

now that I'm in the 12th week and my fatigue is letting up, I'm planning on beginning walking with the posture as much as I can and that is a plan for after birth recovery as well, once I feel my uterus is stabilized after containing such large and hefty contents.

>
>Women have a
>completely different "core" than men, a reality I don't
>believe is thoroughly addressed in many programs.

Fit TV's caribean workout had a core workout using the stability ball and standing leg lifts and such. They did lay on the stability ball and do sit ups but it was different from crunches on the floor as the abs never compressed if that makes sense. I don't know much about physiology, but it seemed female friendly.

The
>daughter of the most famous yoga teacher in the world
>understood this and deliniated several postures that are
>harmful for prolapse.

would this info be available on the net if we knew her name and did a search for her?]

Jane

p.s. monica how far along are you? This will be my third and s/he is due in Nov.

Hi Jane,

Thanks so much for sharing. Your ideas are great, and the concepts sound fine to me! The book I was refering to is Geeta S. Iyengar's Yoga:A Gem For Women....undoubtedly still in print, but if not could certainly be found used. She has a few asanas for pregnancy that I would also trust.

I stated this once before but want to reiterate. Toward the end of your pregnancy, your spine will not be able to hold such a pronounced lumbar curve. This is completely adaptive to such a huge weight in front. Please keep the rest of the posture, though, as the total-body effect will still be very necessary. Your hormones will also begin to work to loosen the ligaments in your pelvis. Just be aware of this and know that your pelvis is slightly destabilized and that you might be subject to lower back pain. If this happens, a wide belt worn very low around your buttocks (probably not something you would want to wear in public) will stabilize the joints in between your spine and pelvis, relieving the discomfort.

Thankfully,

Christine

Hi Folks,
I have been doing a lot of reading on the web about squating for a bowel movement. I noticed in the post above it was said, "I'm squating on the toilet seat" as the bathroom is small. Just please be very careful. On one site I saw it said that squating on the bowl can cause it to break causing serious injury. The bowl isn't made to support the full weight of a person from feet up. I'll admit, I tried it too just to see if this squating is all it is cracked up to be. I think it is! But, I'm afraid to continue to squat on the rim. I'm going to have to figure out something else. For now, I raise my legs as high as possible on a stool that I set to the side when not using it. Be careful out there! You are each so precious to me.

Peace, Karen

Dear Karen,

Thank you so much for your word of caution...a "danger" signal crossed my consciousness with Jane's comment, but I think my brain cells were too overwritten with other stuff to hold it for long. This is why we need each other!

I've been thinking a lot about squatting, too. Jonathan is right that just raising the knees on a stool is not remotely the same thing. There's a perfect interdependency that is established with all the muscles that frees the bowel in a way that the other position just doesn't do.

My current topic of focus is the SIJ in the back, and I think the "throne" sets us up for a lot of undue pressure there, EVERY DAY! All of the energy that should be channeled effortlessly down is being absorbed right there at the joint when we sit and strain.

When I said this awakening means "total lifestyle change", this is an example of what I mean. In my own case I COMPLETELY support the concept of squatting, but do you think I'm going to keep a platform in my English country bathroom that is filled with white porcelain and blue tile? :'(

Something has to change, and I don't think it's going to be my sense of aesthetics...sorry Jonathan!!!:-) For me the obvious solution is to build a really cool outhouse just for that. For other women, the obvious answer is that our health should come before our silly conditioning.

I don't know if you realize it, but we're dealing with a one of the most entrenched (if comfortable!) girders of our culture that must be toppled some way if we're going to have a truly sustainable existence on the planet. The day is coming soon when we're going to have to choose between whether we want to drink our water or flush it down the toilet. Can you envision a bathroom with a warm raised wooden platform where squatting was completely safe, clean, easy and was designed in such a way that we could open a door on the outside of our houses and remove a finished product that could be used to fertilize our fruit trees? This is where we need to get to.

For now, God bless Jonathan, the Squatting Platform, and please be careful!!

Christine

YES! To everything you said. We can't build an outhouse where we live, but surely there is a way not to compromise asthetics and still take care of ourselves. Also, we compost the rest of our waste. So why not???

Speaking of your being over-written...I have noticed we are beginning to get repetition in questions and quite a log of entries - which is WONDERFUL - nearly 175 members - very exciting. I am wondering if a Frequently Asked Questions section would help cut down on how much you have to write here. I LOVE your personal responses but know what you are up against right now. If you would like for me to go back through the logs and put together a FAQ for you, I would be happy to do that. I could send it to you for editing and posting which maybe wouldn't not be as time consuming as writing it yourself. Just a thought. If I can help in this way, let me know.

Peace, Karen

Gosh, Karen...thank you for your generosity. I know we need an FAQ sheet, but I just can't get to it. I really am a one-woman operation other than the marketing materials and technical web work. If you could find time (I know you're busy, too) and would want to contribute that would be terrific! See how it looks and if you put something together email it to [email protected].

I'm making progress with the summer conference. I have a preliminary date: August 13&14 that I hope will work for everyone and I so hope lots of us show up! It won't win any conference-of-the-year awards, but I know it will be fun and most importantly give everyone here a chance to meet and decide where we want to go from here.

I also purchased the URL wholewomanrevolution.com !!! I see at least two, maybe three different organizations here, wwrevolution being the association that will work toward political organizing and medical change.

Thank you ever so much,

Christine

I'm so excited. I have a big trip planned in July and was afraid everyone would meet while I was gone. I was selfishly hoping it would be in August! A Friday, Saturday works very well for me. So I think I could attend this and hope so for others.

I will gladly work on the FAQ. I will only use what you have written. I don't want to distort anything you have said. And of course, I will reserve your perogative to edit anything.

Peace, Karen

Great!