About Determining Best Postures During Pregnancy
Oh Baby! Fitness co-owner Kathleen Donahoe, who is 29 weeks pregnant with her first baby in this video, talks us through ideal posture during pregnancy and what a difference it can make in reducing pressure and pain on your lower back, and how good posture can actually make you look less pregnant!
Hi, I’m Kathleen Donahoe. I’m co-owner and Senior instructor of ohbabyfitness. Over the last eight years I’ve trained over 10,000 pregnant women and new moms in pre and postnatal fitness. And now I am expecting my first baby and I have to say as an industry expert, as someone that knows a whole heck of a lot that’s written, books and trainings about pregnancy, I have found that all the information in the world cannot save someone from a pretty difficult pregnancy. I’ve had a rough go of it with nausea, with vomiting, with prenatal depression. We are excited as we can be about meeting this little guy, but I have been absolutely, you know, my feet have been knocked out from underneath me in this pregnancy, which has been a real surprise, a real surprise.
One of the things that’s been hard that I wasn’t expecting, were all the strangers’ comments on my body, on my physical body and I’d heard people say that this happens, but I wasn’t expecting it. And I certainly wasn’t expecting it, kind of on the other end of the spectrum than what we normally hear. I’ve had lots of people say that my belly doesn’t look right, that it looks too small. They’ve asked if there’s something wrong with my baby. Pregnant women have come up to me and told me that they hate me, at which point I like to share with them, well, I’ve been vomiting for six seven months. So so please don’t hate me.
But I think another part of it is also that for years I’ve taught these transverse abdominal hold, this inner abdominal hold, so I was going to talk you through what exactly that looks like. So I’m seven months pregnant. I’m 29 weeks here. So what, how most pregnant women stand is like this, some version of this right here, and you can see I already look more pregnant. So I have really short lower back. I really lenghthen my abdominal muscles.
Actually the most helpful way to stand when you’re pregnant is the opposite of this. You actually want to tuck your tailbone and pull your baby up and in, literally suck your baby high and tight. That motion, right there. So I’ve got a seven month baby in here and you can pull them up and in. This is a great trick if you’re having any lower back pain, or if you’re one of those people to all these strangers are saying, oh are you having twins? What are you due tomorrow? Whatever that is. Just see if you can lengthen your lower back and pull the baby up and in.
Like I said protects your lower back. It’s also going to help your abdominals postpartum, which we all know, we’re all worried about with that, too. It’s been so fun to get to share my pregnancy with you all on the blog at blog at ohbabyfitness.com. Please feel free to check back in the coming weeks and months. I can’t wait to introduce our little boy to you and share more about our my postpartum experience as well. Thanks guys.
