Alignment and pre-natal exercises

If any of you have been on my facebook page, you will notice that I've have become enthralled with the ideas of Katy Bowman.  She teaches courses on alignment.  I thought they were cool for just general health until I started coming across her ideas on pregnancy and birth....then I thought they were way more than cool.  My mind started reeling with the possibilities.  Here's the deal, the exercises that Katy suggests are help strengthen and stretch the muscles that are needed for childbirth and beyond.  They have the potential to open up the birth canal and allow more room.

Here's some things I've learned and thought about as I've looked at how Katy's work can help women in labor.

I'm pretty sure most people know that upright positioning increases the diameters in the pelvis.  What was found in one article, though, was that squatting did not increase the obstetrical conjugate.  That got me thinking as to why.  This is a measurement that you want to be as big as possible.  So I looked at some women sitting in a squat.  Most of them were sitting with rounded backs and bottoms.  If you check out this blog, you can see the difference between a squat that opens up that room and squat that closes it......

In any case, I'm going to be learning more about how the birth can be facilitated by our alignment and structure.  I'm also going to be doing a prenatal workout designed to strengthen and stretch all that needs to be strengthened and stretched:)  I'll keep you updated.