Yoga and my pregnancy

My son Josias is almost 10 months old, and I am still amazed at what my body did.  It wasn't without discomforts, but when all was said and done, it was not a difficult pregnancy.  I was huge, mind you, so that's saying a lot.  I ate well during my pregnancy, walked an hour almost everyday with my dog Liam, and did yoga at least three times a week.  I had three pregnancy yoga videos and I went to a pregnancy yoga class on Sundays from my sixth month on. And, I gained almost 60 pounds.  Toward the end I couldn't go out in public without strangers asking if I was having twins or if I was past my due date; I was neither.

My theory is that my baby needed the weight.  I don't know why, but he needed it.  I say that because even with all the healthy, good stuff, there was no other word for me except gargantuan.  But, as big as I was I felt pretty good, most of the time.  I attribute this largely to yoga.  And not just the physical exercise of yoga, but the heady stuff as well.

The physical aspect of yoga was invaluable.  At one point during my pregnancy, I was suffering from sciatica.  It made walking and sitting painful.  I looked it up on line and found a few poses that were supposed to help, but they didn't.  I asked my yoga teacher and she suggested a few poses that helped a bit.  In the end I closed my eyes, thought about the baby, my heroic vessel of a body, and imagined what would feel good and make the pain diminish.  After a few moments, the thought: triangle pose and extended side angle pose popped into my head.  I almost disregarded these thoughts, because I had never thought either pose really did anything for my back.  Wrong!  As soon as I did the poses, the pain was gone.  While it may seem like an exaggeration now, it was a miracle at the time akin to loaves and fishes.

The sciatica lasted about a week, but with triangle and extended side angle poses, I was able to get through it.  I was also able to continue walking for an hour a day, another factor that contributed to my physical, emotional and mental well being.  Looking back on it, though, the real miracle to me is that I listened to my intuition and my body and they saved me.

The transformation yoga brought to my life started a few years before my pregnancy, but during my pregnancy, it was a life line.

I wonder what poses got others through pregnancy?

 Namaste. Thank you.