Hi All! I’m hoping to get some input about how to safely adjust my practice in the initial weeks and months post partum.
To give you some background: I’m 35 and have had 2 kids in less than 2 years—my first was an emergency c-section after pushing, my second was a natural vaginal delivery about 7 weeks ago.
I first started practicing yoga when I was pregnant with my older child and since then have practiced pretty steadily with varying frequency from once a week to daily. I also had some wrist issues for a few months in between my kids, so almost the entire time I’ve been practicing I’ve either been pregnant, injured, or recovering from pregnancy and labor.
In terms of my yoga level when not pregnant, I’m probably an advanced beginner of intermediate-ish. I am naturally relatively strong and flexible and did some gymnastics as a kid, so poses like wheel and kicking up to handstand against/near the wall, for example, are prettty accessible to me, but my alignment and proprioception are still developing and the more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know (e.g. I’m still trying to get the arm rotation right in down dog).
All of this to say that I don’t have a good sense of what my baseline ability and range is, and so it’s hard to just listen to my body like everyone keeps telling me to... If something feels okay, is it probably okay? For example— I did camel and wheel today and it felt good, but just read that’s a no no. Meanwhile basic twists that are supposed to be okay hurt my low abdomen and pelvis. Outside of yoga, I feel almost back to myself, with some core and pelvic floor weakness and tenderness around my c-section scar. I did a diastis check and I have about a thumb’s separation above my bellybutton and none below, which I think is pretty normal at this point, but I’m pretty sure it was too soon for backbends...
Any feedback or tips on useful resources would be very much appreciated! Thanks in advance!