I’m Having A Cesarean. Should I Take This Class?
Firstly, I want to validate your concern. Pretty much every prenatal class, blog piece, and social media post about pregnancy is tailored toward vaginal birth. When cesarean does get discussed, much of the language used to describe it paints it as a lesser choice, or something to be avoided if at all possible. Whether your preference was a to have a c-section, or you arrived at it with deep regret, it must be difficult to so often be relegated to the “last choice” in the narrative.
We hear you and we see you.
Let me reassure you right now—we absolutely honor cesarean birth as equal in every way to vaginal birth. You’ll never get pressure from us to give birth any kind of way, whether it’s vaginal or cesarean, epidural or no, induced or spontaneous, home or hospital. In fact, your birth plan likely won’t even come up unless it’s something you want to share with us!
But we know you probably also want to know if it even makes sense for you to join class. After all, isn’t prenatal yoga all about birthing positions and breathing techniques?
Nope! Some prenatal yoga classes focus primarily on birth-specific instruction, but in our experience, focusing on well-rounded strength, mobility, endurance instruction, as well as the stress-relief and emotional support yoga is known for, allows us to support your WHOLE experience—pregnancy, birth, and postpartum—regardless of the details of your birth plans.
All pregnant moms benefit from prenatal yoga for reasons that have nothing to do with birth. Women who stay active in pregnancy have lower rates of perinatal depression, hypertension and gestational diabetes, fewer aches and pains during pregnancy, and quicker and more complete recoveries postpartum. Prenatal yoga has been shown to be especially effective!
We also want to emphasize that while they are equally worthy and beautiful, cesarean births are usually harder to recover from than vaginal births (though that’s not always true!). We think it’s all the more vital that cesarean moms work on strength and fitness during pregnancy so they have a strong foundation from which to heal. A body that’s done deep core training is going to respond better to abdominal surgery than one that hasn’t, and deep core training is one of the “core” tenets of our program!
We encourage you to try our classes and see for yourself. While we’ve worked with expecting moms with varying birth plans for nearly a decade, and we feel we are unmatched in the Tulsa area in our expertise and experience, ultimately you’re the best judge of whether our classes offer the support you need.
Let us know your questions, and we look forward to having you in class!
