Postnatal yoga in Varkala
Come back to your body after birth.
Postnatal yoga is for the months after giving birth. Classes focus on reconnecting with the pelvic floor, deep belly muscles and back, and on finding your feet in a body that has just done something huge. In Germany it sits close to Rückbildung, the postnatal recovery course many midwives run.
No classes scheduled in the next two weeks.
What Postnatal does for you
You get time that is about you, after weeks organized around someone else. Slow, deliberate work for the pelvic floor, belly and back gives you a way to find those muscles again. Many people say they leave feeling more upright, less scattered and a bit more like themselves. And you are surrounded by people who know exactly what this stage feels like.
It suits you if
- you gave birth in the last year and want to move again, slowly
- you want focused work for your pelvic floor and belly
- you would like to meet other new parents
- you want a class where a crying baby is completely normal
Read the full guide to PostnatalWhat a class is like, your first time, history and the words you will hear
What a class is like
Classes usually run 60 to 75 minutes and move slowly. Expect breath coordinated with gentle pelvic floor and deep core work, posture and back work, opening for hips and shoulders after all that carrying and feeding, and a long rest at the end. Many classes welcome babies on a blanket beside you, so there is crying, feeding and pausing, and nobody minds; others are for parents only so you can focus. Rückbildung courses usually run as a fixed series of around eight to ten meetings, led by a midwife or physiotherapist. You sweat little and talk a bit, often in a check in round at the start.
Your first time
- Check with your Krankenkasse before booking: it often covers a Rückbildungskurs of up to ten hours when a midwife or physiotherapist leads it and you finish by the end of the ninth month after birth.
- Ask whether babies come along or stay home, and if they come, bring a blanket, a muslin cloth and whatever you need for feeding.
- Tell the facilitator how and when you gave birth, and about any stitches, cesarean scar or pain.
Good to know
- Many midwives recommend waiting until after your postpartum check, usually around six to eight weeks after birth and often longer after a cesarean, so ask your midwife or doctor when to start.
- If you notice leaking, heaviness in the pelvis or a ridge or gap along the middle of your belly, tell the facilitator and consider seeing a pelvic floor physiotherapist.
Where it comes from
Nearly every culture has a tradition of rest after birth: forty days of lying in across parts of South Asia and the Middle East, zuo yuezi, 'doing the month', in China, and in German the Wochenbett, literally the childbed, the weeks a new mother was expected to stay in bed and be cared for.
Structured exercise after birth came later, out of 20th century midwifery and physiotherapy. In Germany, Rückbildungsgymnastik (postnatal recovery exercise) became a standard part of midwife care, usually starting about six to eight weeks after birth, once the Wochenbett is over. Because statutory insurers often cover a course, many parents in Germany take one as a matter of course.
Postnatal yoga developed alongside prenatal yoga from the 1980s. In Britain, Françoise Freedman's Birthlight classes in Cambridge included the months after birth, and Geeta Iyengar's Iyengar Yoga for Motherhood (2010) covered both pregnancy and recovery afterward.
In Berlin the two often blur: some courses are yoga-based Rückbildung run by midwives who also practice yoga, others are open parent and baby yoga classes in studios and family centers.
Words you will hear
- Rückbildung
- German for postnatal recovery; a Rückbildungskurs is a course for the pelvic floor, belly and posture after birth.
- Wochenbett
- The first six to eight weeks after birth, traditionally a time for rest.
- Pelvic floor
- The layer of muscles at the base of the pelvis that supports bladder, bowel and uterus (Beckenboden in German).
- Diastasis recti
- A widening of the gap between the two sides of the front belly muscles, common after pregnancy (Rektusdiastase in German).
- Mula bandha
- Root lock; a gentle lift at the base of the pelvis used in many yoga styles.