Pregnancy

Getting out of balance
When a woman becomes pregnant, her mind and body has to make big adjustments to the growing baby (or babies) inside her. Nature sees to it that, over nine months, we have plenty of time to do this. However, over our lifetimes we invariably have developed habits that cause our muscles to tighten in ways that interfere with our natural ability to be balanced and poised. So, taking our habits with us into pregnancy, we find that we are unable to respond appropriately to the growing baby inside and we find ourselves out of balance with consequent back, neck and shoulder pain, stresses, strains and poor breathing.

Rediscovering your balance
The Alexander Technique addresses this problem by helping the woman to become more aware of unnecessary tensions, helping her to release them, bringing her body back into balance. It also helps her see what causes her to get out of balance and allows her to choose her response consciously rather than reacting unconsciously, thus allowing her to retain or regain her (mental and physical) balance.

Benefits:
During pregnancy
...You will gain an understanding of how to avoid and let go of unnecessary tensions.
...You learn how to stay calm in situations that would previously have caused you to tense, stiffen up and take you out of balance.
...You learn how to carry the growing baby inside you with poise, avoiding the usual posture-related backache.
...You enable yourself to breathe more fully.
...You decrease the likelihood of indigestion due to a cramped stomach and intestines.
During Labour
You will have learnt some very useful tools to help you:
…Cope with the pain.
…Stay released and poised even when in pain.
…Stay calm.
…Maintain optimum breathing.
…Encourage dilation.
Once the baby is born
You can use the Technique to:
...Feed your baby without excess tension in your arms and shoulders.
...Carry and lift your baby whilst staying balanced and poised
...Look after yourself.
...Bring yourself back into balance when you realise you are beginning to tighten up.

For a downloadable e-book go to: http://freespace.virgin.net/machover.eutokia/eutokia.html

It has a lot of useful information in it about pregnancy including the birth report of my daughter (under my former name of Penny Cook).