Intuitive Hands

As I'm preparing to birth our 3rd child (sometime in October), I've been doing lots of physcial preparations.

For example, I've been seeing a Chiropractor who specializes in the Webster method. She does amazing work on my soaz muscle, my round ligaments and my sacrum- lining all of it up to have an easy exit. It's really nice to have the adjustments at this stage in my pregnancy, cause things are getting all funky in there! My chiropractor even offers a special service where they will come to the hospital during your birthing time and adjust you if things slow or "stall". Many women who use chiropractic have quite impressive stories about how their births go quickly and easily because everything is aligned. I wish that all practitioners offered this to all pregnant women, but many mainstream doctors don't "believe" in chiropractic.

I've been preparing with Hypnobabies birth classes, which although it sounds a little cheesy, is hypnosis for childbirth-to help you prepare mentally and physically and emotionally to have a Joyful and Comfortable birth. (No, you don't hypnotize the baby...!)

I've been doing daily exercises like squats and taylor sitting and hip opening and all that stuff.

AND I want to share about another resource that I am really loving... I went to visit this incredible physical therapist, Lynn Leech, in her practice Intuitive Hands. She does hands on body work for prenatal and postpartum needs. My experience with her was so amazing! She is very holistic and included emotional and physical components to her work, which I was really pleased to experience. She worked a lot in the area of my sacrum and left hip, helping tension release and encouraging me to consider how I might practice "receiving" more in my life based on the way I hold my body and my muscles. It was emotionally intense for me, which surprised me, but I know that our visit will make a huge difference for the baby's birth.
 
Lynn is a storehouse of knowledge and I am blogging about her as a resource is for all moms and moms-to-be. This woman's workshops are packed with such important information and she is literally changing women's lives. I have learned so much from Lynn. She explains how some women end up becoming exhausted or have really long births due to issues with the pelvic bone, tail bone and all the ligaments and muscles connected to the pelvic floor.  She helps release and relax these muscles with physical therapy so you have a slightly lower chance of your birth slowing down or the baby getting "stuck" etc.

For postpartum, she offers "pooch" classes which focus on healing the abdominal muscles after pregnancy and gives lots of good info about how to protect your muscles while you're pregnant. Simple things like the way you lie down and get up can make a world of difference! In fact, a lot of women think they are still carrying baby weight when in reality, the abdominal muscles have not fully healed and so the "pooch" you see is actually your organs hanging out! I really hope you'll visit the website to see what I mean. The before and after pictures will blow your mind!

Here is a handy video to explain what a separated belly looks like: 

The exercises are simple to do and make a big difference. I was using them after I had the twins. (the secret is all about the TRANSVERSE abdominal muscle...there are NO crunches involved here) And you can use these tools even years after having babies.

Finally, if you've had a C-Section then you MUST watch this video that Lynn offers for free on how to massage and heal your scar tissue. This is important even if it's been years since your surgery. Scar tissue actually is a major source of back pain, bladder issues and pain with sex...all stuff we DONT want. So... here you go!

I hope you share this with any women who've had this surgery! I mean, don't get me wrong, the very last thing I wanted to do after my c-section was look or touch my scar--let alone MASSAGE it. But once I started doing it, I felt the tissues get softer and healthier and I had much less pain and sensitivity there. Very important changes, in my opinion.