All the tips recommended for preparing the body leading up to pregnancy like meditating daily, belly breathing, functional strength training, and getting the spine aligned by a professional, also apply during pregnancy. I highly recommend not doing anything strenuous during pregnancy that you haven’t already started practicing before getting pregnant.

1. Prenatal Yoga Practice Check out this blog post on how to modify your yoga practice to fit your new growing bump!

2. Kegels These are super important to pregnancy and after, as 80% of women experience urinary incontinence after natural birth. Picture your pelvis is a clock where the pubic bone is 12 o’clock, tailbone is 6 o’clock, and then each of the SITS bones is 3 and 9 o’clock. Draw 12 and 6 o’clock towards one another, and draw 3 and 9 o’clock together. Hold this in and find a lift through the crown of your head. This is a Kegel. You can also perform by creating the sensation of preventing yourself from going the bathroom by drawing the pelvic floor up and in. Elvie is a great new tool on the market to make Kegel exercises fun.

3. Ergonomics Sit with your pelvis tilted forward as if you are rocking onto the front of your SITS bones and keep your knees below the hips. This keeps a nice natural curve in the low back and allows for proper pelvic opening for delivery. In a sitting-centric society, longer hours on your tush tightens the hips and closes down the pelvic bowl making labor more intense, so take frequent breaks and take a walk.

4. Standing Figure 8 Make this part of your daily routine! Stand with your hands on the back of a chair or wall and make figure 8 with your hips. If you want to take this to the next level, starting hula hopping (in both directions), this will help align the baby head down and free any stuck areas in the pelvis.

5. Crawling On All 4’s, Rocking, And Swimming Belly Down This will help align the baby into a OA (occiput anterior) head down and facing the mothers backside, which is the ideal position for delivery. If baby is facing the mothers front side, mothers should avoid reclining positions (on couch,in recliner, bucket seats in vehicles) and assume upright, forward leaning or side lying positions to help turn the baby into the proper position.

6. Round Ligament Massage This ligament, which also has muscle fibers, starts at the top of the uterus and travels to the labia majora via the inguinal canal. This is the cause of that sharp pain on the lower abdomen when you cough or sneeze during pregnancy. To locate and palpate the round ligament, start at the belly button and travel downward at a 45 degree angle. Second landmark is the front of the hip point traveling towards pubic symphysis. Where these town lines meet is where you will find the round ligament. Feel for a nodule of tightness, gently press and hold this area for 20-30 seconds, massaging out the tightness. This will help work out any torsion of the uterus.

These tips help support the optimal structure and function of the mother’s body preparing her for birth.

7. Sacral Belt As the belly grows and the hormone, relaxin, floods the system of the mama to be, 20% of women will experience sacral instability. The ligaments holding the sacro-iliac joints together loosen, the joints become unstable and all movement is extremely painful. A sacral belt is extremely helpful to stabilize the joints and decrease pain. Our favorite is the Serola belt. The same instability issue from relaxin can occur at the pubic symphysis causing pain with rolling over in bed, spreading the knees apart or pulling the inner thighs together. For everything you have every wanted to know about pubic symphysis pain, check out this site.

8. Buckle Sacral Release For this you need your partner’s help for a hands on release. Pregnant mama: stand facing the wall with your feet shoulder width apart and hands on the wall to stabilize. Partner: Using the palm of one hand with fingers pointing down, use a “smoothing out” motion from the top of her sacrum to the bottom to help release pressure on the pelvis. The other hand stabilizes on the pubis symphysis. Clinical experience has shown this may stop contractions in the case of pre-term labor and also may also get contractions starting again if there is dystocia in labor.

9. Spinning Babies  This is a great resource on how to naturally flip a breached baby towards the 37th week of pregnancy when you want the baby to sit head down.

10. Get Assessed for pelvic alignment by a chiropractor that is Webster Technique certified. It is important to optimize the structure and function of the pelvis to avoid torsion on the round and broad ligaments, Webster Technique is a chiropractic technique to help reduce this torsion and may help a baby align head down into an ideal birth position.

We love to hear your comments, questions, and personal experiences with pregnancy. Visit us at the clinic by calling 212-355-0445 or shoot us an email, info@urbanwellnessclinic.com.