As your baby grows during pregnancy, your uterus will outgrow the space it normally occupies within your pelvis and move up into your abdomen, pressing on other structures as it does so. The top (fundus) of your uterus is usually just above your pubic bone by about twelve weeks, and level with your bellybutton by twenty weeks. While each pregnancy is different, you will usually begin to 'show' during this time and may start and remember to brace your abdominal muscles to balance your spinal posture.
Achieving Balanced Posture
- extend your neck and spine as if you were balancing a book on your head.
- when standing, have your knees 'soft' rather than locked. This will allow you to hold your pelvis tilted to a comfortably 'flat-backed position rather than the sway-backed position common in pregnancy.
- feel 'open' across your chest: bring your shoulder blades together by gently bracing the muscles between them, but keep your shoulders relaxed.
- hold your abdominal and pelvic-floor muscles gently braced, as described in this chapter.
If you leave your posture unchecked in pregnancy, the forward drag on your spinal and pelvic joints due to your increased weight and altered centre of gravity may lead to lower-back and pelvic pain developing. The abdominal strengthening and pelvic-mobility exercises described in this book have been specially chosen to help you maintain a balanced posture in all positions and so help prevent back discomfort and pelvic-joint strain.
IMPLICATIONS FOR EXERCISE
- you need to be diligent in maintaining your balanced posture in all positions and exercises.
- you should make sure you strengthen your abdominal and buttock muscles so that you can control your pelvic tilt as your pregnancy progresses.
- you need to support and protect your pelvic and spinal joints by using pelvic-floor and abdominal-bracing techniques throughout all exercises.
- you should 'think tall' at all times.
- to protect your abdominals, you should replace traditional curl-ups done in the supine position (lying on your back). Also use the alternative strengthening exercises, and techniques for transferring from one position to the next. This may reduce the potential for diastasis during pregnancy and help it to settle naturally within six to eight weeks after childbirth.
