Postnatal Yoga: Recovery After Birth

Namaste, welcome to Yoga & You, where we bring you yoga from its roots in India. I'm Rasika, and today we're going to be doing a short practice for postnatal yoga.

Now, if you have recently delivered, I know that at this time you can feel a disconnect from your body, especially from your core — you feel very disconnected from your core at this time. Personally, it also took me a very long time to even start bringing awareness to my midsection and to pay attention to my core. So if that is you, know that you're not alone — it can also be very difficult and challenging to find long stretches of time for yourself during this stage.

So we're going to keep this practice short and simple, and we will be practicing mostly breath-led core awareness and integration exercises, because I do believe it is not about the six-pack or any fancy jazz like that which really matters now — what really matters is bringing in that integration and core awareness, which is more important. So we'll be building stability and strength from within, and we will also practice a few core-focused exercises which will be accessible for most of you. Keep the practice short, and very importantly, take breaks and pauses wherever you need to. Let's get started.

We'll start in any seated position that feels comfortable for you today — it could be Vajrasana or a cross-legged position, anything that feels supportive. Feel free to sit in that, and all we're going to do is perhaps close your eyes and start to bring awareness to your midsection — the core, as we call it, the frontal core — and just pay attention to that place. This in itself can feel like murky water right now, where you feel super disconnected from what exactly is going on there. So just take some time to feel into the midsection of your body, bring your awareness there, and slowly perhaps even allow the breath to reach that section — just observing the breath and the core simultaneously.

Stay with that awareness. Most of the breath work that we're going to practice today is suitable from birth onward, and most of the core exercises that we will practice today are suitable from anywhere around six weeks after birth. If you've had a natural birth, or if you've had a C-section, please consult your doctor on when it would be safe for you to start.

So let's go a little further from this breath awareness at the core — we will start to focus on specific areas where we feel the breath. First we will focus around the abdomen area, the belly area — you can even bring your hands onto your belly and move them around wherever you feel the breath. I just want you to take a moment to feel the breath in your belly, and you may even move your hands around, just noticing where the breath is felt most. Feel the belly expand on the inhale and go back in on the exhale — a few breaths just like that. Inhale, feel the belly expanding, pushing into your hands; as you exhale, feel the belly go back in, away from your hands, towards the spine.

A couple more breaths like this. Now moving further up, we're going to go towards the ribs — hold your ribs so your forefingers are in front of the ribs and your thumbs are behind, like you're holding onto your ribs as if you're wearing a corset. As you continue to breathe, you'll feel on the inhale the ribs expanding, moving naturally from the sides, pushing into your fingers, and as you exhale, feel the ribs move back into each other, contracting. Let's do a few breaths just like that — initially it might feel very forced, but the idea of today's practice is to try and make this as frequent as possible, so that we are able to breathe like this as often as possible. Breathe at your own pace, which is why I'm not cueing every breath — just a couple more breaths.

Okay, you can release your hands. Now, this is where we're focusing on both the belly and the chest area — ideally, when we expand the ribs we're also breathing into the chest. This is diaphragmatic breathing, where you're using the entire diaphragm, which is actually the organ that helps you breathe. We're using the diaphragm fully, which is very crucial during this phase to bring back that awareness.

Now, the last area that we're going to include in our breath is the pelvic floor. The pelvic floor, again, during this time might be very difficult to really spot or bring awareness to, but just visualize it mentally — the pelvic floor is made up of four points: front and back is the coccyx and the pubic bone, and the two sit bones at the sides. You want to feel that entire diamond shape that is your pelvic floor down there. What I want you to do is, as you inhale, feel yourself releasing and relaxing the pelvic floor — imagine it opening out like a hammock — and as you exhale, rein it in, feeling all four points coming in towards one pinpoint at the center, as much as possible. So inhale to release, exhale to pull it in. Again, take your time — maybe after only about three to five breaths you will actually start to be able to pay attention completely and find that awareness. Visualization really helps during this time. Okay, one more breath like that. Okay, relax.

Now the next few breaths we are going to bring all this together and focus on a breath work where on the inhale you will be taking the diaphragmatic breath, and on the exhale you will focus on the pelvic floor lift. The objective of this exercise is also to get you comfortable with this kind of breath practice, so you can practice this anytime — the more often, the better it is for you to feel integrated in your core. Try and practice it at least as often as possible, whenever you remember.

So let's try and do the same thing: as you inhale you want to feel the breath in your belly as well as your chest — feel everything expand, belly expand, ribs moving outwards, and feel the breath all the way up towards your chest. As you exhale I want you to feel like you are drawing the pelvic floor in towards one point at the center. Inhale, relax the pelvic floor and open, expand, belly expands, chest expands; as you exhale, rein the pelvic floor in, squeeze — it's like you are trying to control your pee, you know, that's the kind of sensation you want. Keep going like this at your own pace — inhale, expand, diaphragmatic breathing; exhale, pull the pelvic floor in.

Now inhale, same diaphragmatic breathing; as you exhale, pull not just the pelvic floor in, but we'll also draw the navel in towards your spine, and the ribs in towards each other, so it feels like you're wearing a really tight corset as you exhale. Inhale, full expansion, everything relaxes, and on the exhale, everything squeezes in — pelvic floor in, navel in towards your spine, and ribs in towards each other. A couple more breaths just like that, one last breath. All right, slowly release. Like I mentioned, continue to breathe as much as possible like this even throughout the practice today — keeping this kind of breath going, squeezing in especially during the exhale, is very crucial for you to feel that core integration and stabilization.

Moving on, now let's get into a little bit of core work. First let's come into a tabletop position — this is a great place for us to practice a little bit of core work. Make sure your wrists are under your shoulders, knees under your hips. From here we'll take a few rounds of Cat-Cow to mobilize the spine — inhale to arch the back, look up, exhale to draw everything in. Inhale, arch the back; exhale, round the back, draw the tailbone under. Inhale and arch the back, exhale pull it in. Inhale, find a neutral spine, and from here tuck your toes and exhale to lift your knees a few inches off the mat, feeling the activation in the core — stay one, five seconds, two, three, four, five, drop it down. Let's do that five times total — we've done it once, so four more times: on the exhale lift the knees up, one, two, three, four, five, drop it back down, inhale; exhale lift the knees, one, two, three, four, five, inhale drop; exhale lift, one, two, three, four, five, drop, inhale; last one, exhale lift the knees, one, two, three, four, five, inhale release. Just sit back on your heels — notice that itself might be a little challenging if you're still trying to figure out your core, if you're still early on after childbirth. That's completely normal.

Now, whenever you feel ready, let's come back into that tabletop and take this floating tabletop one step further from what we did. If you're still struggling with the previous one, feel free to stick to that and keep practicing it. If you're comfortable with that one, we'll move this one step further — on the exhale get into the floating tabletop, lift the knees up, and we're going to move forward two steps and back two steps: right hand, right leg, left hand, left leg, then move it back, right hand, right leg, left hand, right leg. What I want you to do is try not to sway your hips around too much — try to keep the hips reined in and move using your core. Let's do that just two more times: exhale to lift the knees up, let's walk — right hand, right leg, left hand, left leg, left hand, right leg, right hand. Let's do that another time at your own pace — it's also a little bit of coordination work. You can drop it down, sit back on your hips.

Now from here, take your hands back behind you, interlock your fingers, and inhale to lift the chest up, stretching out the front of the shoulders and the chest, undoing this bit of contraction we just did — one, two, three, four, five, release.

Now we come back into the tabletop position and we're going to do bird dog switches. Take your right leg back, lift the right leg up, and extend the left hand forward if it's comfortable — if not, you can keep the hand down and only lift the leg up. Bring it back down, switch sides: left leg, right hand down, inhale switch, exhale down; inhale switch, exhale down; inhale switch, exhale down; inhale switch, exhale down; last one, inhale switch, exhale down. All right, sit back on your heels.

Now we'll get into a simple high plank — if you're used to doing plank before or even during your pregnancy, you can get into plank; if not, I'll show you a modified plank as well. For plank, come into tabletop and then extend both legs back, protract your shoulder blades, push the mat away from you, and feel some kind of a zipping up through the center — pulling everything in at the center, navel in, ribs in, squeeze the thighs, and squeeze the glutes. If this is very difficult from this position, just drop your knees down and stay here, pushing the mat away actively. Wherever you decide to do the full plank or the modified plank, we'll stay for ten seconds — all right, let's go: ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, drop the knees down and relax. This much itself can feel like a lot, so feel free, again like I mentioned, to take a pause, to take as many breaks as you need, and to do only as much as you're comfortable with.

So now for one of the last exercises we'll do, let's lie down on our back. We'll do this in four stages — feel free to stop at any stage if this itself feels like too much; there's no pressure to move on to the next stage. Everybody faces a weak core after childbirth, so don't judge yourself — there's absolutely no shame in taking it slow. Keep your left foot down and lift your right leg up at a 90-degree angle. Use your left hand on your right thigh, and think of pushing the palm into the thigh and the thigh back into the palm, so it's like you're resisting the push from both directions. You'll feel this somewhere around the core — stay with it and breathe. This is stage one; you can just stay here for the entire count we're going to do.

Now, if this is very comfortable for you, step two is to lift your head up off the floor — you'll feel a little more activation in the core. You can stay right here and not add anything if that's comfortable, or if it's also comfortable, lift the left leg up as well and bend it into a 90-degree angle too — this is stage three. You may stay right here, or if this is also comfortable, extend the left leg and the right hand — so, like this: inhale to extend, exhale to rein it back in, all while pushing into the right thigh. Let's do about eight of these; for the others who are still on stage one, two, or three, stay there for the entire duration of the count. Let's go: inhale exhale one, inhale exhale two, inhale exhale three, inhale exhale four, inhale exhale five, inhale exhale six, inhale exhale seven, inhale exhale eight. Relax the head down, bring the feet down, and just bring your breath back to normal.

Whenever you feel ready, let's switch sides. Step one, lift the left leg up 90 degrees and use your right hand to push; if this is comfortable, lift your head up; if this is comfortable, step three, lift the right knee up as well; and if this is all comfortable, let's go with the back-and-forth, right leg, left hand. Inhale, open up; exhale, rein it in — one. Inhale, exhale, two, keep resisting; inhale exhale three, inhale exhale four, inhale exhale five, inhale exhale six, inhale exhale seven, inhale exhale eight. Head down, hug your knees to your chest — you may rock your body side to side, gently massaging the lower back.

And that's it, we've come to the end of our practice. The last posture is Shavasana — you can either take it in Supta Baddha Konasana, reclined butterfly, if you feel like you need a little bit of opening around the inner thighs, or if you feel a little tender in your lower back, you can get into a constructive rest pose by taking your feet apart and bringing the knees together — very supportive for the SI joint. So choose whichever one you prefer today, and stay here in this Shavasana for as long as you'd like.

Now, if that practice felt like a lot for you right now, feel free to stick to the breath part of the practice, and you can return to the core exercises as and when you feel ready for it. Thank you so much for practicing with me.