Postpartum Yoga with Jenna Leigh
I am Jenna Leigh, a birth doula and prenatal/postnatal yoga instructor with Balanced Beginnings Doulas in Boulder and the surrounding metro Denver area.
My job is to support, guide, and enlighten women during their own unique journey into motherhood. I am strongly committed to supporting families through a healthy and peaceful pregnancy, birth and postpartum period. More specifically, I am passionate about helping women build strength, improve posture, and increase energy levels throughout pregnancy and the postpartum period.
So why yoga? Yoga helps shift and uplift your mood. When we stress an emphasis on breathing and moving simultaneously, it transforms your body into a deep relaxation and well-being. Within the first six weeks postpartum, we want to nurture the nurturer, while also relieving any stress and tension caused to the woman’s body during pregnancy. Pregnancy can alter your posture and body. You start nursing, pushing a stroller and lifting a baby, so we want to work on increasing back, shoulder and core strength to improve our posture. The goal here is to keep the mother relaxed and stress free while bringing awareness and strength back to her body. Begin these exercises once you have been cleared from your care provider.
What you need.
A mat
Blocks
Comfortable clothes
1. Pelvic Tilts: A gentle posture, this will relieve pressure in your lower back while bringing strength and awareness to your pelvic floor. (Aid by squeezing a block between your knees.)
Begin by lying on your back with your feet hip- width apart and your arms by your side, palms facing down. Curl your tailbone under, feeling your spine settle into the floor. Take a deep inhale, and exhale as you lift your hips up slowly, tucking your tailbone under.
2. One-legged cat: This posture aims to rebuild core stability and strength after the birth, focusing specifically on toning the trans-verse abdominis, rectus abdominis, obliques and pelvic floor.
Begin on your hands and knees, lifting and straightening the right arm as you extend it outwards with the opposite leg stretching
3. Cat Cow: This posture aims to rebuild core stability and strength. When we engage our abs, we are strengthening our pelvic floor.
Tuck chin to chest, drawing your stomach muscles in and to the ceiling, then release and relax. Exhale out drawing your muscles all the way in towards the center of the back. Do this slowly and easily, while exhaling and releasing.
4. Twisting lunge: Inversions to balance the hormonal system as well as tone the uterus. When we twist, we tone and revitalise the internal organs, while toning the waist and opening up our chest.
Start in a standing position, heading into a forward lunge with your right foot bent forward. Take your left hand and place it on the left side of your right foot, raising your right hand into the air, opening up the chest.
5.Right angle wall stretch: My personal favorite, this posture aims to relieve immediate neck and shoulder tension and rounding of the upper back caused by frequent breastfeeding in the early months of motherhood.
Find a position about 2 feet from the wall. Press your hands into the wall, inhale, exhale and feel the stretch in your hamstrings, glutes, back and shoulders.
