Establishing a bond with your unborn baby - Pregnancy Yoga, Abdominal Massage and more.
Establishing a bond with your baby
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Establishing a bond with your baby 〰️
How I Connect with My Baby during Pregnancy
Michelle, our co-owner discusses the practices she engages with to tune into her unborn baby. Not only do these help her feel connected to the baby, but they form an important part of her self-care routine due to their relaxing benefits. They include communication, pregnancy yoga, meditation, and abdominal massage.
Respond to Babies Kicks
At the time of writing, I am 30 weeks pregnant and settling into the third trimester. My baby’s kicks are getting stronger, with me feeling him most active late at night. Possibly because I am busy looking after my three-year-old during the day and then tidying up once he goes to bed.
When my baby kicks, I respond by very gently pressing on the area and waiting for his response. It feels like we are having a conversation. Sometimes my partner gets involved and if he’s lucky, he’ll receive a kickback too
Pregnancy Yoga
Keeping active during pregnancy helps to reduce general aches and pains. My lower back and pelvic area also feel much looser after my pregnancy yoga practice. If you are interested in learning more about the pelvic floor and pregnancy read here. Yogic Breathwork is so important because it can support you throughout labour. I had a planned C-Section with my first born.
My Yoga Breathing helped me throughout the delivery to stay grounded and calm. Never underestimate the power of the breath! As an experienced yoga practitioner and a Mum, I know how to adjust to accommodate my growing bump. However, it’s still nice to participate in a class in our Glasgow studio.
As a Mum to a three-year-old, it can be tricky to carve out the time to go to a class. I love to attend our wonderful pregnancy yoga teacher Alice’s class on a Sunday evening There’s the option to go in person and online. Both have different benefits, but the online option really suits me because it fits around our family routine.
When we were designing our Glasgow Pregnancy Yoga class, we wanted to schedule it for a Sunday evening as it felt like it would be most beneficial to prepare for the week ahead. The class focusses on empowerment and everything you can do to connect to yourself and your unborn baby. The class works closely with your energy and emotional stage and includes a mixture of suitabke movement, strength and stability work. Part of our aim with the Pregnancy Yoga Glasgow classes is also to establish a community of like-minded, pregnant people so feel free to stay around for a chat afterwards
Meditation
I am a very visual person and there are a few techniques I like to use to connect to my son. I am a trained Shamanic Practitioner and I use shamanic journeying to balance his energy and communicate with him. Another way in which I connect is through visualisation and breathwork. I usually like to find a time of the day that is quiet, once my older child is in bed or when he’s at nursery. To do this I:
Sit or lie comfortably with cushions and blankets to support my body
Close my eyes to allow my attention to go inwards
Breathe in through my nose and imagine that the breath is travelling down an invisible cord to my baby in my womb
Breathe out through pursed lips and imagine I am giving my baby a hug as my abdomen draws back towards my spine
I will sit and focus on this for a few minutes, and it feels like baby is getting a massage and a warm embrace with the power of my breath
The final technique I use is Yoga Nidra. I usually practice this in the middle of the night as I am experiencing some pregnancy insomnia. Yoga Nidra is a guided form of meditation that takes us between wakefulness and slumber. It’s deeply relaxing, calming and helps me drift back to sleep.
Massage My Abdomen
A way of feeling physically connected to my boy is by gently rubbing or massaging my bump with essential oils or body lotion after my bath. This also feels really relaxing and soothes my abdomen as it’s started to feel heavy. I am not trained in massage but rubbing in a clockwise direction feels lush. Now that I am on maternity leave it is at the top of my agenda to go for pregnancy massage!
Find more info on our Pregnancy Yoga Glasgow Southside Classes here.