A Movement Educator's Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth

Pregnancy, the Pelvis, and Movement: A science-based technique for movement educators is dedicated to fitness professionals who combine curiosity and critical thinking to care for their pre and postnatal clients. My goal is to empower and inspire the movement professional to use solid scientific research as a jumping-off point into creativity and expanded thinking when dealing with our individual pregnant and post-pregnant clients.



From a movement perspective, we will look at the most easily recognized element of disruption to the system which is the consistent, rapid, and extreme weight gain in the front of the body throughout the nine months. This alone, when addressed with alignment tools and exercises, can create a more easeful pregnancy, labor, and recovery. This is an extremely important factor to address, and one that this book will highlight with creative insight and tools. The recognition that we can positively influence mood and hormonal balance through movement is widely accepted, but how that is accomplished is still nebulous. Without delving into any type of talk therapy, we can still implement strategies to hone our instructor’s eye and intuition to successfully treat the whole person. According to the American Association of Pediatrics, more than 400,000 infants are born to depressed mothers every year, and almost half of these women first began experiencing symptoms of depression during pregnancy. Obviously, there is a need for creative intervention to help these women, and movement practitioners can be a crucial part of the equation.



Working with an embodied approach enables us to become a trusted and integral part of mother’s support team. The belief here is that the pregnant mother must be empowered with the knowledge that her body is physiologically tailored to give and to recover from birth. One of the ways she can gain this confidence is with a movement practice and a teacher who helps her to become more at home in her body. This approach and how to practice it is infused throughout the book.



Focusing on the benefits of the Biotensegrity model of movement and heightening Interoception are additional strategies that can be used to create whole-body function as well as emotional wellness in pregnancy. In the Biotensegrity model, the fetus is part of our body, and every move the mother or baby makes changes everything in our structure. Imposing this simple idea into movement for labor and delivery can change moods and outcomes in the labor room by creating a sense of control and empowerment. Important fascial structures that impact the pregnant body will be detailed in the book in order to create a better picture of areas of common concern and congestion that need to be addressed.  Pregnancy is a key time to build and foster Interoception. We can use movement as a tool to track how we are feeling on the inside so we are better able to follow the cues our body is giving us during labor.



The book will also explore heightening proprioceptive skills and how we orient our body parts to each other and to our environment while experiencing the progressive changes of pregnancy.  Pelvic Whole-Body Prep for Labor, a program featured in the book, links areas of the body to the connection and function of the pelvis. The pelvis is the transit station and the center of the universe, especially in labor and delivery, and the roads must be opened throughout the body.



The above practices are then expanded further into refining daily, functional movements with The Essential Daily Five for Pregnancy. If the pregnant body is doing these daily, repetitive motions consciously and with good skill, they will prepare the body day by day throughout the gestation period.  The book ends with a comprehensive guide to movement during labor and recovery with tools and exercises one can perform safely right after delivery.