Preparing your Body for Birth: A Pregnancy Mobility Routine

Ever considered a homebirth, or even an unmedicated natural hospital birth? Or maybe you are not even sure you could do it? For some reason, people love to share horror stories of their hospital birth experiences, but I am here to share about the BEST and most wonderful experiences of my life: having each of my 4 boys at home!

Whenever anyone hears about my homebirth stories, the common lamentation is that ‘they could never do that’. I truly believe that any woman is capable of a natural, unmedicated home birth, they just need to prepare for it! In my pregnancies, I spent a lot of time and energy preparing to have an unmedicated homebirth, focusing on mind, body, and spirit.

Perhaps the most important of these is the mind: the mental preparation. Not only the mindset prep during pregnancy, but getting your mind in the right place or ‘in the zone’ during labor. I will address key tips and my experiences in the next blog post. For today, the focus is on preparing the body, physically. 

Pregnancy and giving birth is an athletic event.  You would never try to go out and run a marathon without training. Pregnancy and birth is no different.

You can improve your pregnancy and birth experience by adopting a regular daily mobility routine. Incorporating these exercises is crucial for improving the birth process by:

• Preparing your body for the demands of pregnancy and labor; a mobile body can do this
• Enhancing physical and emotional well-being
• Strengthening/activating muscles used in delivery and for birthing positions
  • Activating diaphragm, core, and pelvic floor for stabilization while pregnant and facilitating effective pushing during labor
• Relaxing/turning off muscles needed to allow baby to travel thru birth canal
  • The pelvic floor needs to yield (lenthen and relax) so baby can descend down the pelvis and pass thru pelvic floor muscles
  • The hip flexors and adductors need to be able to both activate/turn on, as well as lengthen and relax to help with pelvic stability, enhance pelvic floor function, and give you the range of motion to get into effective labor positions

By prioritizing mobility, not only can you ease the physical stresses of pregnancy, but you can also cultivate a more positive mindset leading up to the incredible experience of childbirth. Happy moving!

Dr. Meryl Miller, DC