Prenatal Yoga

My first class at Glenmore Wellness Yoga Center was such a blast. I'm really surprised it was so cool because I'm not that into yoga. I've done Bikram a few times--the "hot yoga" where you sweat like ex-UVA basketball coach, Pete Gillen--and enjoyed it. Well, except for the time that I puked after class because I was so dehydrated. But I digress.

Prenatal Yoga was a much better experience. I was immediately greeted by the teacher, Heather, who was rather young and super-peppy. We got to chatting and it turns out she lives in my neighborhood. Go figure.

Anyway, she asked me right off the bat if I was planning on having a natural birth, because they kind of promote it, and a lot of women who want to do a natural birth attend the class.

Seriously? Uh, no. I want drugs. "Feel free to inject patient with anything at time of birth" is what I want my hospital chart to say. Not trying to win any awards for bravery in the delivery room, that's for sure.

After making it clear where I stood on natural birth and she didn't demand I leave, she asked if I had any problem areas or parts of the body I wanted to focus on. I told her that up until recently, I'd been feeling great. But lately, I had a lot of achiness at the base of my spine.
She explained what I'd been experiencing was sciatica. The sciatic nerve is a long nerve that runs from the lower back to the backs of the legs and feet. The weight gain during pregnancy and that additional pressure on that nerve can sometimes cause it to be inflamed, resulting in the pain I'd been feeling. Rest assured, said Heather, we will do lots of exercises in class to tackle that common pregnancy symptom. Battlestar Sciatica, here I come!

Class began with introductions. To my right was a 39-weeker. Yeah, this woman was due in a week and she was at class. I'm surprised she could still stand up without toppling over, she was so huge. And to my left was an 11-weeker who said when she signed up for yoga, she didn't expect to be in this class. I guess her babe wasn't exactly planned. The rest of the students were somewhere in between, most having their first babies like me.

The next hour was pure bliss. Heather put us in all sorts of crazy poses to stretch our growing, achy bodies. I definitely joined the chorus of moans when we did cow-face pose to stretch our hip flexors. Eagle arms was another one that got everyone nearly orgasmic. Who knew I carried so much stress in my upper back?

The last 15min of class was dedicated to "sevasana" or as I like to call it, "nap time." With the lights turned out and 2 comfy pillows propping our head and legs, Heather played some spa music and told us to "breathe away all of our stress."

With such a great first class, I undoubtedly signed up for a month pass. Can't wait till next Wednesday!