Women tend to take on so many roles in their lives.  From mother, daughter, wife, to friend, women play every role with so much responsibility.

This often means a typical woman will gladly sacrifice her own wellness for the sake of those she cares for.

As a women’s physical therapist, I’ve treated a spectrum of women, from pre-pregnancy to postpartum and beyond. 

As a Korean woman living in the West, I’ve first handedly experienced the postpartum dichotomy between Eastern and Western culture when I had my two boys.

Eastern Pregnancy Vs Western Pregnancy

In Asia after pregnancy, women receive so much care and reverie for recovery from child birth.  Here in the West, women can be commonly found walking with their new born in a stroller as early as 1 week postpartum.

In Asia, after a woman delivers a baby, she is cared for and required to allow the pelvic bones to set back into place. 

My personal experience as a Korean woman is that we are recommended to eat lots of seaweed soup made with bone broth for its iron content as well as to help produce good milk.  

I was advised to lay down on a heated blanket to allow my bones to align back in place. Also, I was deterred from going outside of the home, especially with the baby. Lastly, I stayed away from exercise for at least 3 weeks.  

Eastern culture reveres the postpartum period as time to restore a woman’s body from carrying a baby for 9 months.  

The birthing process is very different between East and West as well.  Many countries respect natural order when it comes to delivering the baby.  There’s no scheduling or pitocin induced child birth.

Because pregnancy is a time when a woman is creating a life within, it’s a time to tune inward and create an environment where the fetus can flourish.

Techniques for a Healthy Pregnancy

We now understand the effects of stress.  There’s also many research studies validating the impact of our brain chemistry on our gut and vice versa.  

What’s more is that there’s a growing body of research also validating the practice of meditation as an effective tool to decrease stress levels and change our neurochemistry.

All this to say that as a pregnant woman, there are so many things one can practice to shift the needle in her baby’s favor so that the baby can be as resilient, stress free, and well nourished as it can be.

During pregnancy, the baby depends on the mental, emotional, and nutritional health of the mother to supply what it needs.  Connecting to your baby can start in utero and it’s something that we feel every woman can choose to do.

Benefits of Prenatal Yoga

As a childbirth-preparation class, prenatal yoga encourages stretching, mental centering and focused breathing.

Research suggests that prenatal yoga is safe and can have many benefits for pregnant women and their babies.

Prenatal yoga can:

  • Improve sleep
  • Reduce stress and anxiety
  • Increase the strength, flexibility and endurance of muscles needed for childbirth
  • Decrease lower back pain, nausea, headaches and shortness of breath

Prenatal yoga can also help you meet and bond with other pregnant women and prepare for the stress of being a new parent.

At Alkaline Yoga, we are all about our women, especially before pregnancy, during, and postpartum.

We offer weekly classes that foster calmness and zen for the baby and the mom in a way no other modality can.  This in turn creates an optimal, Alkaline environment where the baby can flourish both inside and outside the womb.

So for the next few weeks we’ll be talking more about pregnancy, healthy movement during pregnancy, and how your thoughts affect your baby. 

If you’re interested in signing up for prenatal or postpartum yoga, call us at 678-335-5566.

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Talk to you soon.