We all know yoga is great for our mind, body and soul, but yoga can also be one of the best preparation tools for pregnancy and child-birth.
That is of course, if you’re doing the a style of yoga that is well-suited to your gorgeous womanly figure.
If we travel back in history to the origins of yoga, yoga was actually developed for men, and women weren’t even allowed to do it.
Hence to say, most yoga modalities teach a style of yoga that is often too harsh on the female body, and can actually lead to tension in the pelvic floor and reproductive area.
And yes, it might sound like you’re superwoman if you have a pelvic floor of steel, but try birthing a baby through your over-toned pelvic floor, and you’ll soon run into trouble.
In order for a woman to have a natural vaginal birth without tearing or later complications, she needs to have:
- A supple pelvic floor (one that is toned but free of tension due to over-strengthening)
- Pelvic stability and flexibility
- A healthy posture that encourages the baby to position correctly and supports the sexual organs in staying in place
- The ability to completely relax and surrender her whole pelvic area (and vagina) open
- Trust in her inner voice to guide her through the birthing process.
And if you’re after an orgasmic birth – yes, they certainly are possible – then you also want to add ‘sentient vaginal tissue’ to the list.
Unfortunately, if you’ve been doing Kegels everyday (Yes Kegels actually do more harm than good. Simply click here to read more) or a rigorous pilates or yoga routine that is designed solely to strengthen your pelvic floor and encourages you to iron out the natural womanly curve in your lower back, then you compromise your body’s innate ability to birth.
So what is the best yoga practice for a woman wanting to get pregnant, have a healthy pregnancy, a blissful birth and resilient organs well into her twilight years?
Yoga for the Vagina was developed specifically to support the female body in being able to function as it was designed.
Poor posture, unhealthy exercise regimes, sedentary lifestyles, lack of empowering education and a disconnection from the body are all responsible for the high rate of interventions required in childbirth, and the even higher rate of long-term symptoms experienced post-birth.
More than 60 percent of women will experience incontinence post-birth.
44% of women will experience some form of sexual organ prolapse with one in three women needing a hysterectomy by the time they’re 60.
That stats really are shocking, yet these kinds of issues can be prevented with a self-love based yoga practice that is purposely built around the female body and reproductive system.
So how does Yoga for the Vagina work?
Yoga for the Vagina is a series of postures, massage, reflexology and breathing techniques that come together to form a practice that heals not only the physical body, but the energetic body.
Many of the practices in Yoga for the Vagina also use a Jade Egg, which is an egg shaped crystal made of Nephrite Jade that women learn how to sip inside the vagina.
Once inside the vagina, you’re able to squeeze and release the egg, and move it up and down the vaginal canal, in such a way that you are:
- Toning and strengthening all of the reproductive organs so they stay healthy and in place
- Re-sensitising the vagina so you can experience deeper vaginal pleasure
- Drawing trauma out of the vaginal tissue
- And bringing fresh blood to the area to facilitate healing.
You are quite literally working from the inside out, and essentially activating the energy centres in the body required for deep healing.
This is why the Jade Egg has been used for over 5000 years!
Yes, queens and concubines in ancient China used the Jade Egg internally to not only help them maintain their youth, but to keep their sexual organs ripe and resilient.
How does this help with pregnancy and childbirth?
When you combine postures that help lubricate the hips, groin and belly – all places that are susceptible to growing tight from our culture’s love of sitting in chairs – you begin to clear the stuck energy creating illness in the body, so that such issues as infertility, ovarian cysts, weak or over-tight pelvic floors, PMS and other womanly problems, are able to self-heal.
In order to get pregnant, you need to have a healthy reproductive system, and Yoga for the Vagina does this, through aiding the body in working as it was designed.
At the same time, the practice helps create a supple pelvic floor and a highly sentient vagina, so that you can experience deep vaginal pleasure, not only during sex, but during birth.
When your vagina is awake – you’ll know if your vagina is awake because you’ll be experiencing G-spot orgasms and full body cervical orgasms – then orgasmic birth becomes a real possibility for you, as the baby makes its way down through the birth canal.
Orgasmic birth is where you’re able to fill the body with so many pleasure-hormones such as oxytocin, and surrender so fully into the birthing experience, that you quite literally have an orgasm as you birth your baby.
Not only that, having such a lush and restorative yoga practice where the focus is on body-love and self-nurture, you develop a much deeper connection to your inner voice, that will guide you through the entire labour.
This ability to stay in your body and listen to your body’s cues, is one of the most important ingredients to a happy, healthy, positive birth.
Important note.
In order to use the Jade Egg safely through your pregnancy, you need to have started the practice at least 6 months before conception.
Why?
Because once you become pregnant, you do not want to be changing the shape and structure of the pelvic floor.
When you use the Jade Egg you are helping the pelvic floor return to a healthy state of supple tone.
That said, if you’re already pregnant, then absolutely you could do Yoga for the Vagina without the Jade Egg, and still gain many of the delicious benefits, as all of the postures and massage techniques aid in supporting the body to be ready to birth.
In fact, there is a Yoga for Childbirth PDF included inside the online course, specifically designed to teach you how to adapt the practice to make it pregnancy-safe.
The pregnancy and birth guide includes:
- Instruction on how to use the Jade Egg during conception and pregnancy
- How to modify the yoga poses and sequences to make them pregnancy safe as your belly grows, including a full Posture Guide.
- A Yoga Mini to help heal abdominal separation for the 6-weeks after birth
- Helpful hints on positioning for birth
- Tips for overcoming typical pregnancy symptoms
- Extra Resources list to help you enjoy a positive birth experience.
When you learn how to hold your body in a certain way – inside and outside of your yoga practice – you help baby position well, while looking after your sexual organs.
And you develop the crucial mind/body connection and self-love needed to glide through your birth in a heart-felt way that allows for a beautiful entry of your baby into the world.
What about post-birth?
When a woman gives birth she can experience all sorts of complications and long-term symptoms, especially when there are interventions during the birthing process.
The most common of these being incontinence, damaged nerve endings, loss of libido, post-natal depression and prolapsed sexual organs (where your sexual organs quite literally fall out of place, sometimes right on out through your vagina!)
The great news is, that even if you didn’t start your Yoga for the Vagina practice before you got pregnant, you can use Yoga for the Vagina after birth (and I highly encourage this), to help heal all of these symptoms naturally.
As you learn how to gently squeeze and release, in a way that activates your entire pelvic parfait of muscles, tissues, facia and organs, you create the perfect amount of supple tone to restore any loss of vaginal elasticity, support your sexual organs in returning to their healthy and natural positioning, so that any of the symptoms you experienced post-birth, such as incontinence, can heal.
Not only that, as you do this beautiful practice, you will feel more connected to yourself so that your sense of self returns, along with your libido!
Many women feel as though their vagina simply isn’t the same after childbirth, and while it probably won’t ever return to it’s exact pre-birth look and feel, you can certainly use this practice to help it reawaken and re-tone so that it is super healthy and you’re experiencing even deeper pleasure than before your birth.
What you need to remember is that it’s not birth that changes the vagina so much.
The vagina is a muscle.
You either use it or lose it.
What I’m saying, is the more you can prepare your vagina and those birthing muscles before birth, the easier and quicker you can bring them back after birth.
Yoga for the Vagina really will nourish you in all the right ways so you have the love and energy to nourish your little one.
If you’d like to explore Yoga for the Vagina, simply visit www.yogaforthevagina.com and sign up for your free Starter’s Sequence.
This blog was first published on the Sway Natural Birth website, for which I wrote the blog. For inspirational pregnancy and birth information, check out the website: www.swaynaturalbirth.com.au