*Editor’s Note: No website is designed to, and can not be construed to, provide actual medical advice, professional diagnosis or treatment to you or anyone. Elephant is not intended as a substitute for medical or professional advice, care and treatment.

If you haven’t done so already check out part 1 of this article to get a little background to why the following information is so important. 

Our priority during pregnancy needs to be preparing for birth as well as optimising post-birth recovery. What you do during your pregnancy can greatly affect how you heal and from my experience with my students it is really worth taking the time to get it right for you. As I mentioned in part 1, every woman is different and every pregnancy is different so it is important to find what works for you. These are some simple guidelines you can incorporate into your daily practice. 

Do ~ Practice deep breathing. Inhaling through the nose and exhaling gently through the mouth as if blowing through a straw. This is deeply relaxing, very powerful and will help you during birth. If you get into the habit during your pregnancy it will come naturally during delivery. 

Do ~ Gentle pelvic floor activation. As you inhale gently draw up on the muscles of the pelvic floor as if they are being sucked upwards, and as you exhale gently release them. The release is equally important and make sure that the whole exercise is done with lightness and with the breath. This can be repeated about 5 times but not more. 

Do ~ Lots of hip circles, seated, standing and on hands and knees. These are great for relaxing the lower abdomen, gently lengthening the oblique muscles and to release tension from the lower back. 

Do ~ Stand with your feet hip-distance apart and parallel. Keep the toes pointing forward (avoid Charlie Chaplin feet) and leave lots of space between your feet when standing or in down-dog. Same applies if you’re on all fours. 

Do ~ Use blocks under your hands during forward folds and in side-angle poses. Always make sure there is space for your baby. 

Do ~ Strengthen the legs! Deep wide-legged squats with the feet parallel are great for building up the leg strength needed during birth. 

Do ~ Lots of restorative yoga poses – legs up the wall with a blanket under your lower back is great for swollen ankles. Supported Supta Baddha Konasana with blocks or bolsters under your knees and another bolster length-wise under your back, propped up under the head end with a another block is wonderful for deep relaxation. 

Don”t ~ Hold your breath or force yourself to breathe in a way that causes stress. Your lungs might feel compresses especially later in your pregnancy, this is completely normal, try not to force the breath past the point of comfort, just breathe within the space that is available. 

Don’t ~ Do anything that forces you to use deep core muscles – inversions, arm balances, jump-thoughts are best avoided. 

Don’t ~ Lie flat on your back or on your belly. 

Don’t ~ Over stretch. During pregnancy a hormone called relaxin is released into the body and causes everything to get really soft and stretch – great for pregnancy and birth but can cause over-stretching and later damage if we are not careful. Try to not go beyond 70% of your usual flexibility. 

Don’t ~ Twist around the abdomen. A gentle twist in the bra-strap area is ok later on in pregnancy but should be avoided early on. 

Don’t ~ Do any practices that cause you to sweat excessively or build up too much heat. 

Don’t ~ Hold poses for too long. I like to encourage my students to move gently within a pose, for example in an extended side-angle pose the arm that would normally be reaching over-head can circle in large windmill circles using the breath. This gently stretches the obliques and also keeps the pose soft and less rigid than its “traditional” counterpart. 

A word on inversions: There is much controversy with regard to inversions during pregnancy. There are many beautiful pictures of heavily pregnant women in hand stands, scorpion and all kinds of weird and wonderful postures. As impressive as they are, these postures do not offer any benefit to the pregnant body. In order to be executed safely they require deep core engagement and as I explained in part 1 of this article this is counter-productive to a healthy delivery and a fast post-birth recovery. Additionally going upside-down with the added weight of a baby in front will put extra strain on the lower back. Generally it is best to put the inversions on the back burner until full recovered from the birth.