Exercise and Dancing for a better Birth

As a Dancing for Birth Instructor, my mission is to empower women through dance.  They have the inner wisdom and strength to birth their babies.The dancing for birth classes are fun and informative. There are 2 essentials for an effective and intuitive birth:

1. Sensation! without sensation during labour, mom’s body can’t give her clues and insights as to what her baby needs from her.
2. Freedom of Movement! without freedom of movement during labour, mom can’t move in response to her body’s cues and her baby’s needs.

When we dance, we teach certain moves which work well with birthing.These moves have characteristics in common:

1. Work with gravity
2. Use forward bending posture
3. Allow pelvis to tilt forward instead of being tucked under
4. Keep knees loose and slightly bent
5. Keep the pelvis loose and able to move freely
6. Create asymmetry of the pelvis
7. focus on sending energy ( and the baby ) down and out
8. keep the pelvis higher than the knees
9. allow feet to be flat and grounded with freedom of movement
10. These dances should be practiced prior to labour so they can be done spontaneously, without thinking.

There are physiological reasons dancing facilitates birth: I will point out a few for you.

1. Asymmetry of the pelvis creates more usable space for the baby to move and turn and fit through. All babies must rotate 90 degrees in the pelvis cavity to fit their shoulders. These dancing moves increase the dimension of the pelvis.
2. Dancing during labour helps mom to let her body move with the contractions rather than resist them.
3. Dancing reduces Physical tension, breathing is deeper and more regular and adrenaline is reduced which is a good thing during labour.
4. Dancing promotes the effects of gravity to mom’s advantage.
5. Dancing creates continuous movement, helping baby achieve the best position for birth.
6. Dancing is a pain coping skill, helping eliminate the desire for drugs and interventions which could interfere with the birth and mom’s well-being.

There are psychological reasons dancing facilitates birth:

1. Dancing gives focus and purpose. Mom assumes a leadership role.
2. By being physically active through dancing,mom takes a psychologically active role in her birth.
3. Dancing creates an awareness of mom’s body cues and baby’s needs.
4. Being literally grounded, with her feet on the floor, helps mom feel emotionally grounded.
5. Dancing helps mom deal with the uncertainty of labour by taking it one move at a time.
6. The calming effect of dancing helps prevent the fear-tension-pain syndrome and therefore speeds up progress.

By encouraging mom to dance during her birth, we empower her to actively participate and rejoice in her labour, to embrace her labour’s unique rhythm and unfolding, to love her voluptuous pregnant body, and to trust in her baby’s and her own inner knowledge of how to birth. The euphoria mom experiences will spill over to infuse her parenting and her life with joy.https://www.facebook.com/betterbirthing/