A series about home yoga practices with my baby, as I build my strength up again after a C-section.
Disclaimer: I have no formal yoga training and cannot comment on whether this practice is safe for you and your baby. You must assume responsibility for any risk incurred should you choose to engage in this practice. The information that follows represents solely my own experience and opinions, it is not endorsed by Yoga With Adriene, LLC.
Key Information
- Link to the Practice (on YouTube)
- Length of Practice: 20min
- Style of Yoga: Gentle / Restorative
- Personal Info:
- I had an emergency lower segment caesarian section in September 2022
- At the time of this practice baby was 13 weeks old
Welcome to this new series! I’m unsure if anyone will be interested in reading this, so please do let me know if you like the concept. Here’s a bit of background information. I’m currently trying to build strength and fitness again after my first pregnancy and an emergency c-section in September 2022. I first started practising yoga in April 2017, when I was working a stressful PGY2 House Officer job and desperately needing some kind of outlet to process my emotions. I joined a studio and was so fortunate to find an amazing group of instructors. As was the case for many others though, my home practice only really took off during the pandemic. Throughout my pregnancy I continued to practice antenatal-safe yoga at home. I attended my first “Mum and Baby” class ten weeks after giving birth and resumed a gentle home practice at the same time. These posts document my experience in getting back on the mat with a small baby in tow.
How We Found It
This is such a great practice for anyone nursing or spending a lot of time with a babe in their arms. As much as I try to sit up straight and be mindful of my posture throughout the day, I still find myself with an achey back, tired arms and legs, and tight shoulders all the time. I would recommend this for anyone feeling tense, sore or stiff – it somehow manages to target all of problem areas in one go: the neck and shoulders, spine and ribcage, hips and hamstrings. The entire practice is low to the ground as well, which I find really soothing when I’m low on energy.
The practice starts slowly, with the first three or four minutes focussed on breathing deeply and opening up the neck and shoulders, calming the mind and allowing you to really tune in with your body. Baba lay on a blanket at my feet and was quite happy throughout this section – the change in breathing pattern somehow soothes him as well.
The next part is where is starts to get really good, with stretches and head-to-knee poses to decompress the rib cage and loosen up tightness in the legs and lower back. Adriene is so good at cueing small adjustments here that really alter your experience of getting deeper into these stretches. Baby loves any kind of movement where I bend down close to him and can give him a cheeky tickle or blow a raspberry on his tummy, so he adored this section.
After five or so minutes we transition via a quick foot massage (SO GOOD) to poses aimed at opening up the hips and heart space, with gentle spinal twists. At this point it became harder to keep baba involved, and he didn’t like losing sight of me, so I let him do some tummy time on my tummy as I relaxed into the stretches, and that kept him very happy and entertained.
The final five minutes present a range of options to wind down and relax. I think this can be the part I struggle with the most at present when practising with my baby: I just really crave that moment to completely let go, but have to stay alert to what he is doing, and sometimes (often?!) his energy is way higher than mine. Sometimes it works if I tuck him up beside me and talk quietly to him, sometimes I just go with the flow and let him lie and climb on top of me – which clearly is not so peaceful!
In summary though, a really delicious practice that just felt so good for my whole mind and body. The 20 minute videos are definitely the easiest one for me to do with baby at this age – he tends to tire and get fretful with longer ones – so it’s great to have a go-to that covers so much in so little time. A little truly goes a long way, I guess! As always, I’d encourage you to support the channel by subscribing to it if you enjoy this practice. And reach out to me if you’re practising at home with a baby!
Mad to Live 