“To be pregnant is to be vitally alive, thoroughly woman, and distressingly inhabited. Soul and spirit are stretched ‒ along with body ‒ making pregnancy a time of transition, growth, and profound beginnings.” ‒ Anne Christian Buchanan
Preparation is what we do at Bodies for Birth®. It is woven into each and every class, every 1:1 training session, even within the paperwork to register for services.
My aim is to get your wheels turning. To consider why you’re seeking fitness services at this stage, to encourage you to ask your burning questions about fitness when it comes to this new journey, to confront the elephant in the room (…if one exists for you…and, often it’s fear related to exercise and harming baby), to draw upon your past successes, your values and strengths, your intuition and to thoughtfully consider this vital phase of preparation.
When we train together, every meditation and visualization is intentional, each and every exercise is a thoughtful, modifiable one, each class or training session comes with a theme for education and discovery. The guiding principle behind all of this is to provide the ultimate in mind-body preparation, so that you might build a robust toolbox for pregnancy, labor and postpartum, for motherhood and beyond.
Bodies for Birth® aims to provide life training and sustaining skills to help you thrive so you may be “Empowered Through the Process.”
A component of our specific Prenatal Preparation relies heavily on Moderate Intensity Interval Training in combination with Mindfulness Based Training to prepare for the challenging mental and physical work of labor and birth.
We are laying a foundation for familiarity with effortful work followed by intentional, calm recovery. With this in mind, we learn how to be uncomfortable and to stay calm, we learn how to work and relax simultaneously, we learn how to control the breath, to conserve energy, to be with a body that is working physically hard, to draw on tools from your unique toolbox and to surprise ourselves with the new tools we create in the moment to aid in coping.
Regardless of the mode of childbirth, be it vaginal or surgical, with or without medication(s) and intervention(s), this intentional Mind-Body Preparation (enhancing both physical and mental fitness) will undoubtedly set the stage for a better postpartum recovery.
While I make no promises about anything else throughout the process, I state this with deep confidence.
I’m so pleased to report that in the past decade, we’ve seen more research being published and growing confidence in exercise during pregnancy, with more options available all the time! And, with this, comes more questions as well!!