Living-room cat-cow for a tired third trimester
May 2026
In May 2026 I filmed a three-minute cat-cow for tired third-trimester days, no studio required.
Hip openers while baby naps
Leaf-fall 2025
In leaf-fall 2025 I rebuilt my nap-window hip sequence so it stays kind to a healing midline.
Kitchen-counter calf stretches after night feeds
4 April 2023
4 April 2023: the kitchen counter became my favorite calf-stretch barre after 3 a.m. feeds.
Stick-figure Sunday practice
Back in 2020
Back in 2020, Sunday stick-figure sketches became the cue sheet for a five-minute home practice.
10 Tips For Good (and Happy!) Posture During and After Pregnancy
Whether you just had your baby or are about to, you’ve probably never felt this tired in your life.
So thinking about having a good posture is most likely, well, so not on your list! 🙂
But good posture is not only essential for the health of the spine and for the proper functioning of the organs, it also has a direct effect on our outlook on life, usually bringing upon a more positive frame of mind.
For the prenatal mama, a healthy posture encourages baby’s optimal positioning in the womb, and can help mama find more comfort during pregnancy.
For the postpartum mama, a healthy posture can help to stabilize the structural imbalance that pregnancy and postnatal carrying / feeding baby may have created in the body, and is a part of healing diastasis recti, thus playing an important role in postnatal recovery.
Such a powerful tool!
14 Helpful Tips To Start Healing Diastasis Recti (“mummy tummy”)
Numbers vary, but it is said that between 65 – 100% of women experience a degree of diastasis recti during the course of pregnancy. While teaching postnatal yoga, I’ve noticed a number somewhere around 95% of women have some degree of gap.
What is it?
Diastasis recti is the gap or separation of the front abdominal muscles (the Rectus Abdominis) that occurs due to the pressure pregnancy puts onto the abdomen, also known as a “mummy tummy”. Pregnancy puts so much pressure on the belly that sometimes the muscles in front can’t keep their shape. “Diastasis” means separation. “Recti” refers to your ab muscles called the “rectus abdominis.” – WebMD
How to know if you have diastasis recti?
You can test yourself for diastasis recti : – Lying on your back, knees bent. – Place your fingers along your mid line at belly button level, pressing them slightly inwards. – Then lift the head and shoulders as if to do a sit-up. – If your fingers can press down into a space in between your abdomen muscles, this is an indicator of diastasis recti.
What MuTu System says about the gap:
What helped me
I became aware of mine during my first pregnancy. I was about 20 weeks pregnant in my midwife’s office for a routine exam. While coming up from a lying down position (a bit like at the beginning of a sit-up), I saw a sort of a triangular-shaped bulge popping up in the middle of my belly line (super weird!).
She informed me that it was diastasis recti. “That’s diastasis recti!” I definitely had no idea what she was talking about, but seeing as she didn’t look too worried about it, I hardly looked it up. I was actually quite lucky in my postpartum rehabilitation, and gained strength and tone back within a few weeks, though the gap didn’t entirely close. With my second pregnancy however, my gap became wider and the healing process was much longer. It took me: – 2-3 months to start reconnecting with my abs, or “feeling” them again – 12-14 months to get all of my tone and support back The gap has never completely closed, but I have learned to use my abdominal muscles in a functional way and consider myself to be “healed”. Here are the tips and exercises that I used (and still use daily) to help me with my diastasis recti. *As always, please consult with a licensed physician before beginning any new exercise program.
12 Tips for Breastfeeding Success
Before having my first baby, I was clueless as to how breastfeeding actually worked. I had seen my friends breastfeed, and gotten a few pointers during my prenatal class, but the mystery remained absolute, and was only to be revealed in real-time when baby finally arrived…
Many surprises ensued!
Day 1: Wow, these guys really have practiced their technique in the womb. Already so strong! (Aww 🙂 )
Week 1: Wait a second.. this hurts..
Month 1: Really, again?
And so on.
I didn’t realize to what extent breastfeeding is something you learn, that it takes time to “master”, and that there really are tools to help us get by. Here are 12 tips that helped me along my breastfeeding journeys.
Yoga Music for Labor – 10 Songs I Prepared (But Never Got To Use!)
Although I had planned on it, I didn’t actually get around to listening to music during my 2 labors, even if I had prepared some for both occasions. The first time around, the labor was so intense from the get-go with contractions every 1-3 minutes, that I didn’t even think of the idea of having music playing. All I needed and wanted was silence, and the reassuring presences of my midwife and partner around me.
And my second labor went so fast that by the time we made it to the birthing center, my baby girl was already in my arms within a few minutes.. bliss. 🙂
But I would have loved to experience the soothing effects of music while laboring.
Relaxation during labor can help to lessen the sensations of pain, as well as create a climate of safety and trust, which in turn helps the body and mind to relax and let go.
It is even recommended to try dancing during labor. I did not get around to that one. LOL. But if you are able to, dancing, alone or with your partner during labor, can help us connect to the joyous nature of pregnancy and birth, create mobility in the body and help to relieve stress and anxiety by releasing endorphins into the body (the powerful pain-relieving and pleasure-enhancing hormone that our bodies produce during labor to help mediate the pain of contractions).
Here are 10 pieces of music that I would have liked to have included into my labors. There are no words, just sounds and melodies.
Note: Some of these are also pieces that I love to use while teaching or practicing yoga.
12 Birth Affirmations That Gave Me Strength
Because sometimes words, spoken or thought, have the power to carry us through one contraction after another, and even childbirth itself, positive birth affirmations truly can play an inspiring and invaluable role during labor and delivery.
After my first labor, I realized the importance that encouraging words had played in helping me to cope and stay focused during birth. Bringing me “into” myself, they allowed me to let go of tension and fear, and to just let the amazing birthing process occur…
..What wonder!..
When it was time to prepare for my second labor, I remembered and noted the words and phrases that had made a difference for me during my first labor, and I also sat down to find some other words that seemed meaningful and might help me get by, this second time around.
Here are some of the encouraging, empowering, or just plain and simple words that I thought or heard during my two labors, and that gave me strength.
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On 10ThingsYogaMama you’ll find the tips and tools that have worked for me during pregnancy, labor and when I became a mama, everything from my yoga and dance background that has been useful in helping me to get by. And a bunch of cute stick figures too.
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