During pregnancy there are many changes to your body over the 9 months. This can cause some muscles in your body to lengthen and weaken due to hormones, a change in posture and growth of the baby places extra pressure on your muscles, ligaments and joints around your pelvis and abdominals.

Specific reformer pilates exercise can help to increase the strength in these specific muscles to cope with these changes while also getting you prepared for childbirth and a faster recovery postnatally.

The classes are designed with over all body strengthening with specific muscles targeted including the deep abdominals, pelvic floor muscles, gluteals, and postural muscles.

During pregnancy a hormone called relaxin is released which allows for softening and relaxation of muscles, ligaments and tendons allowing your body to “stretch” your baby to grow and be birthed. Recent studies have shown the pregnancy hormones can cause some women to have higher pain sensitivity in these structures causing increase pain.

The changes in posture due to the growing baby and these hormonal changes can cause some women to experience low back and pelvic joint pain.

Pilates is a safe form of low impact exercise during pregnancy to avoid strain on the pelvis and back during this time and to help strengthen and balance the muscles around the joints and ligaments that are having increased load placed on them.

During pregnancy some muscles become tighter due to the postural changes and increased load placed on them so it is important to stretch these muscles to help prevent pain and injury.

During the class specific muscle groups are stretched that are commonly tight during pregnancy. Some of these include the the gluteal muscles, calves, upper back muscles and hip flexors.

Pregnancy can be a stressful time on your body, while also mental health adjusting to the bodily and life changes you are about to experience. Pilates focuses on controlled breath work which helps with good gas exchange for you and baby, calms the nervous system, is good preparation for labour breathing techniques and also encourages chest, rib expansion which is often restricted during pregnancy.

Pilates helps promote relaxation while switching off from the daily stressors and focusing on your own wellbeing during this time.

Pilates exercises can help you gain strength and endurance for the demands of labour and the demands of motherhood and postnatal recovery. Evidence has shown that improved pelvic floor strength during pregnancy can result in a faster recovery of these muscles after childbirth. Pregnancy and childbirth can stretch and damage to the pelvic floor muscles so it is important to rehabilitate these muscles during your postnatal recovery.

During pregnancy the abdominal wall muscles are stretched and lengthened significantly with most women experiencing a separation of these muscles in the final few weeks of pregnancy called Diastisis of Rectus Abdominus Muscle (DRAM)

Pilates can help to improve this DRAM through specific exercises when performed postnatally.

The demands of motherhood can cause pain and tightness into the upper back from carrying, feeding your baby and the lower back/pelvis from bending and lifting your baby. Exercises to strengthen and support these muscles are performed during the pilates classes.