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Preparing Your Body For Birth
Exercises
Kegels
Strengthening your pelvic floor muscles may help protect your perineum, the muscular area between the anus and vagina, from tearing during childbirth. Kegel exercises are small internal contractions of the muscles that support your urethra, bladder, uterus and rectum. You can do Kegels anywhere — sitting at your computer, watching TV, even standing in line at the supermarket.
• Tighten the muscles around your vagina as if trying to interrupt the flow of urine when going to the bathroom.
• Hold for a count of four, then release. Repeat ten times. Try to work up to three or four sets about three times a day.
Pelvic Tilt
This position will strengthen your abdominal muscles and ease back pain during your pregnancy and labour.
• Get down on your hands and knees, arms shoulder-width apart and knees hip-width apart, keeping your arms straight.
• Tighten your abdominal muscles and tuck your buttocks under and round your back, breathing in.
• Relax your back into a neutral position and breathe out.
• Repeat at your own pace.
Squat
Squatting is a time-honoured way of preparing for and giving birth. This position strengthens your thighs and helps open your pelvis.
• Stand facing the back of a chair with your feet slightly wider than hip-width apart, toes pointed outward. Hold the back of the chair for support.
• Lower your tailbone toward the floor as though you were going to sit down on a chair. Contract your abdominal muscles, lift your chest, and relax your shoulders. Find your balance — most of your weight should be toward your heels.
• Take a deep breath and, exhaling, push into your legs to rise to a standing position
Tailor or Cobbler pose
This position can help open up your pelvis and loosen your hip joints in preparation for birth. It can also improve your posture and ease tension in your lower back.
• Sit up straight against a wall with the soles of your feet touching each other.
• Gently press your knees down and away from each other — but don’t force them apart.
• Stay in this position for as long as you’re comfortable
Start slowly and work at your own level for each of these exercises.
• childbirth education classes
• specific books
• hospital tour
• optimal nutrition during pregnancy
What’s the best way to prepare for giving birth? Especially if you’ve never done it before?
Some would take the more external approach, pointing in the direction of, or in taking a. But when you have not experienced birth (and even if you have), the best way to prepare is very inward.
The most obvious “inward” way to prepare your body is to get it ready by practicing. Everything that goes into your body has the potential to help or harm your baby, and like an athlete preparing for a race, what you put into your body does affect how it will behave during labour. Over the course of several months, the best way to prepare your body for birth is to eat a balanced, whole foods diet with plenty of protein, calories, salt and water. Even with the best diets, supplements can play a part, especially a high quality prenatal vitamin made from real food, as well as an essential fatty acid supplement, a pro-biotic and whatever else supports your body in maintaining a healthy pregnancy. “You are what you eat” rings especially true during pregnancy and birth.
There is no right way to prepare your mind and soul for childbirth, and there are probably a million ways to do it depending on where you are coming from and what your bel
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