Bindu 23 - engelsk 7.p65 - Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School

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The shoulder pose is one of the poses that can turn the baby, so that the head points downwards if it is lying upside-down in the womb. See below. learnt at a week end course. After just a few breaths I relaxed and the birth developed completely normally. I now use the same form of breathing for breast feeding, to calm myself and the baby.” The breathing exercises in yoga each have their own special effect. Some cleanse and refresh, others are calming. All of them harmonise the blood pressure. They make it easier to let go of a stressed and nervous state and also to overcome fatigue and depression. Relaxation can be learnt A genuine relaxation gives rest to body and mind, and you benefit more from your night’s sleep. During relaxation the nervous system changes from sympathetic to parasympathetic activity, the latter being associated with the restorative processes of the body. This is needed both by the pregnant woman and the child. “Yoga Nidra is the peak of my whole day”, I have heard many expectant mothers say. Once you know the relaxed state, it is easier to return to it when you need it. The yoga tradition contains various relaxation techniques. A simple way of practising daily deep relaxation is to have it on a tape - Experience Yoga Nidra by Swami Janakananda has two relaxations, a short one to start with, and a longer and deeper one, when you want to go further (see page 33). The relationship to pain Most women experience pain when they give birth. However, regarding her choice of methods to manage or relieve the pain, the woman’s own inner security and self knowledge are important factors - as is her ability to relax and concentrate. Within the yoga tradition there is a technique through which you learn to deal with sense impressions or influences without yielding to them. The method is called Pratyahara and is valuable to use during the birth. (It is described in detail in the book Yoga, Tantra and Meditation in Daily Life by Swami Janakananda). In Pratyahara you direct your whole attention towards the “disturbance”, for instance a pain, instead of trying to avoid or suppress it. You accept it and allow yourself to experience it. Thus, it ceases to be something “dangerous”, that you want to avoid at any price; by getting to know it you manage it. And you may well “forget” it. Perhaps the pains do not disappear entirely, although you relax, but the fear of the pain disappears - and the birth becomes a powerful experience. Some women have related in detail how they were able to feel the movements of the uterus. Others have described that they were able to permit the force of nature or energy to work - energy which, behind everything, governs life and birth. Many women actually have such a surplus of energy during the whole birth that they can freely use their knowledge of the yoga techniques, to choose those “Shortly before my first birth, the midwife discovered that the child was lying in the wrong direction with the legs down. We went to the hospital, where the doctors tried to turn him around, but without success. They said he was very big and that it was physically impossible to turn the baby. They insisted on doing a caecerian! I was under immense pressure from the staff, because I didn’t accept the authority of the doctors. In the end we left the hospital. At home I started to practise the Shoulder Pose for a long time, many times each day. I continued because I could feel something was happening inside of me. It was as if there was tremendous movement inside. The following day the midwife came to examine me, and I could hardly believe her, when she said that the baby had turned around. Shortly afterwards I had an easy and harmonious home birth, where my experience with Pratyahara and visualisation proved a great help”. (Anne from Aalborg, Denmark) 6
of the greatest possible help in the actual situation. “Thank you for the course”, a woman said, who had attended an ante-natal yoga course prior to the birth of her daughter. “It was so wonderful... but the greatest was to do the lion’s roar during labour.” When you open your mouth, stretch the tongue far out and make a relaxed, deep sound throughout the exhalation, then it automatically has an effect all the way down to the groin and the pelvic floor. This may be due to an interaction between the nerves in the region of the mouth and jaw and the muscles of the pelvic floor. For each contraction, she became better and better at “controlling the pain by means of the sound”, even those pains which are normally the strongest. When I gave birth to my own child, roughly six years ago, I used many of the techniques I teach in the ante-natal classes. It was a quiet birth, and I had plenty of time to move around. During the first stage I sat in the squatting position, stood up with the upper part of the body hanging horizontally and stood on all fours. During the last, forceful contractions of the first stage, I really needed my ability to concentrate to avoid tensing. An old Tantric poem on devotion to all the various aspects of life arose in my mind. “Devotion, devotion, devotion...” I thought and experienced pain. I was pain and devotion at the same time. It was so intense, that there was neither the need nor the time for thoughts about any kind of pain-killers. It became a strong “here and now” experience. birth is going to be. However, when the contractions really get going, you can easily hand over the responsibility to the hospital staff, unless you are in shape to go through with what you really want. On the other hand, a birth is no athletic feat, where the woman is either “good” or “bad”. And should something unexpected occur, such as a protracted birth where the child suffers from a lack of oxygen, then it is fine to have access to all the resources offered by a modern maternity ward, and not least to the doctors and midwives with all their knowledge and experience. To practise yoga during pregnancy does not guarantee an easy and unproblematic birth. But I am certain, that what ever kind of birth you choose - in water, standing up or lying down, at home or in a hospital - and no matter how the birth unfolds, then yoga gives you your own experiences and a set of “tools” which help you to accept and manage any given situation. In shape again - on a course or at home At the post-natal yoga courses most mothers are accompanied by their children, who alternate between sleeping, being breast fed or getting changed. To be yourself during the birth Many women have quite a rose-coloured idea of how natural and beautiful their 7
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Page 4 and 5: Yoga for pregnant women - before, d
Page 8 and 9: Some look intensely at the yoga exe
Page 10 and 11: others. Nothing is final or permane
Page 12 and 13: But I was actually awake and well w
Page 14 and 15: asic reactions to life, and that th
Page 16 and 17: Heinrich Böll, as well as Franz Ka
Page 18 and 19: society lives on its own illusions.
Page 20 and 21: One day, a close friend, the painte
Page 22 and 23: population catastrophe. Rousseau wo
Page 24 and 25: As to being a yoga teacher, I do no
Page 26 and 27: and show you how to return to yours
Page 28 and 29: This was a little about my life as
Page 30 and 31: Håå International Course Center -
Page 32 and 33: Yoga, Tantra and Meditation in Dail
Page 34 and 35: Read Bindu - previous issues are st

Bindu 23 - engelsk 7.p65 - Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School

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