4 Yoga Poses For Breastfeeding Moms

VERIFIED By: Nisha Dhawan, Yoga coach at MultiFit

These simple, mindful poses allow you to reconnect with yourself, offering a moment of healing in a busy, beautiful journey.

Motherhood is a profoundly transformative journey that changes your body, mind, and soul. As a breastfeeding mom, you give so much of yourself to your baby, but it’s equally important to nurture yourself too. Yoga offers a unique way to reconnect with your body, calm your mind, and restore your energy all while providing much-needed relief from the physical demands of breastfeeding.

Here are a few yoga poses that can help you regain balance and strength in your body while centring your mind and soul:

1. Cat-Cow Stretch (Marjaryasana-Bitilasana): This dynamic movement between a Cat (Marjaryasana) and a Cow (Bitilasana) stretches and massages the spine, helping to alleviate the tightness and tension often caused by the forward-leaning posture of breastfeeding. The gentle flow between flexion and extension helps increase spine mobility while promoting better posture. Physical Benefits: It relieves tension in the neck, back, and shoulders and stretches the muscles around the abdomen and chest, where breastfeeding moms often experience strain.
2. Child’s Pose (Balasana): Child’s Pose is a restorative pose that stretches the hips, thighs, and spine while offering a space for quiet reflection. This pose particularly benefits breastfeeding moms, allowing them to decompress and relieve physical and mental fatigue. Physical Benefits: It stretches the lower back, hips, thighs, and ankles. It helps ease lower back pain, typical from long sitting periods while nursing. It also reduces stress on the shoulders and neck.
3. Bridge Pose (Setu Bandhasana): Bridge Pose is a gentle backbend that strengthens the muscles in the lower back and glutes while opening the chest and shoulders. For breastfeeding moms, this pose helps counterbalance the hunched-over posture associated with nursing. Physical Benefits: It strengthens the glutes, hamstrings, and lower back, which support the body during long periods of sitting. It improves posture and relieves tension.
4. Legs Up the Wall (Viparita Karani): Legs Up the Wall is a profoundly restorative pose that helps relieve tired legs and promotes full-body relaxation. This pose benefits breastfeeding moms who experience swelling or discomfort in their legs from sitting for extended periods. Physical Benefits: It helps reduce swelling in the feet and legs by encouraging circulation, relieving tired and cramped muscles, and releasing tension in the lower back.

Conclusion

Breastfeeding moms often spend long hours holding their babies, which can strain the upper body and affect posture. Maintaining upper body strength is crucial to support the shoulders, arms, and back during these extended periods. Strengthening these areas can help prevent the common slouching that can lead to discomfort or pain in the neck and shoulders. Yoga during this phase is more than physical recovery it’s about reclaiming space for your entire self. These simple, mindful poses allow you to reconnect with yourself, offering a moment of healing in a busy, beautiful journey.

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