{"id":1411,"date":"2014-12-17T10:27:46","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T10:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?p=1411"},"modified":"2025-07-30T19:36:05","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T18:36:05","slug":"top-3-exercises-for-preparing-for-labourbirth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?p=1411","title":{"rendered":"Top 3 exercises for preparing for labour\/birth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Giving birth is amazing, scary, hard work, unpredictable, a miracle and beautiful. I&#8217;ve only been through it twice and both times it has been a different, but unbelievable experience. I&#8217;m completely in awe of how the female body nurtures the baby and then goes through the birthing process. I learnt so much from giving birth the first time that it has shaped the way I teach my classes, with a focus on remembering to practice breathing, relaxing the pelvic floor and releasing tight muscles groups.<\/p>\n<p>So here are my top 3 exercises to help you prepare for labour.<\/p>\n<p>I used hip circles throughout my second labour as I found I naturally wanted to do this movement and it helped me work through my contractions.<\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;drop the baby&#8221; exercise is the one I so needed to know before baby 1 as I was rubbish at relaxing my core! There are disadvantages to having a strong core \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n<p>CAT is one of the favourite exercises in my pregnancy classes. It is great for helping release and mobilise tight lower backs and just feels so good when you are pregnancy.<\/p>\n<p>Go practise ladies!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"738\" height=\"416\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uHhtt1lSbOI?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If you want more exercises to help you through prepare for labour, help you through pregnancy and also postnatally then please check out my DVD&#8217;s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Giving birth is amazing, scary, hard work, unpredictable, a miracle and beautiful. I&#8217;ve only been through it twice and both &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,259,6],"tags":[712,711,709,175,716,715,153,118,714,713,710,223,708],"class_list":["post-1411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-antenatal","category-back-pain-2","category-bump-to-birth","category-exercises","tag-antenatal-pilates-exercises","tag-birthing-exercises","tag-exercise-to-prepare-for-labour","tag-pilates-hampshire","tag-pilates-preparation-for-giving-birth","tag-pilates-preparation-for-labour","tag-pilates-southampton","tag-pilates-with-priya","tag-pregnancy-pilates-exercies","tag-prenatal-pilates-exercises","tag-prepare-for-giving-birth","tag-priya-tew","tag-safe-exercises-in-pregnancy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3FIsx-mL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":951,"url":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?p=951","url_meta":{"origin":1411,"position":0},"title":"Bump to Birth DVD Review from EDM fitness.","author":"Priya Tew","date":"16 July, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a lovely review of our Bump to Birth Antenatal Pilates DVD that I recieved from Victoria at EDM Fitness: \"\u2018From Bump to Birth\u2019 was very easy to follow (even if you are a complete beginner at Pilates) and could be done at home when you have a quiet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;AnteNatal&quot;","block_context":{"text":"AnteNatal","link":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1099,"url":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?p=1099","url_meta":{"origin":1411,"position":1},"title":"3 Band Exercises to Tone and Tighten","author":"Priya Tew","date":"31 October, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tnMberBXjL8","rel":"","context":"In &quot;AnteNatal&quot;","block_context":{"text":"AnteNatal","link":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/tnMberBXjL8\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1008,"url":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?p=1008","url_meta":{"origin":1411,"position":2},"title":"My Top 3 Pilates Exercises for Pregnancy.","author":"Priya Tew","date":"15 August, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm a huge fan of Pilates during pregnancy, it really kept me strong, active and held my pelvis together throughout 2 pregnancies. In fact in my second pregnancy when I was teaching 11 Pilates classes a week and doing Pilates daily I had no lower back pain or pelvic pain.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;AnteNatal&quot;","block_context":{"text":"AnteNatal","link":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/p97UC4_tDTA\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":394,"url":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?p=394","url_meta":{"origin":1411,"position":3},"title":"Pilates for Bumps.","author":"Priya Tew","date":"10 March, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It's now been 16 months since my bump became a baby and just 2 months since I started teaching AnteNatal Pilates. Teaching this class has reminded me how much Pilates helped me when I was pregnant. All those aches and pains were so helped by some simple exercises such as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;AnteNatal&quot;","block_context":{"text":"AnteNatal","link":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/dscf7174.jpg?fit=1200%2C913&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/dscf7174.jpg?fit=1200%2C913&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/dscf7174.jpg?fit=1200%2C913&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/dscf7174.jpg?fit=1200%2C913&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/dscf7174.jpg?fit=1200%2C913&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1969,"url":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?p=1969","url_meta":{"origin":1411,"position":4},"title":"Pilates in Pregnancy, it&#8217;s a must.","author":"Priya Tew","date":"10 July, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been lucky enough to teach antenatal pilates for 4 years now and in that time I must have worked with over 250 ladies. I've also used pilates myself through 3 pregnancies and it has helped keep me strong, shown me which parts of my body needed working on and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;AnteNatal&quot;","block_context":{"text":"AnteNatal","link":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pilates with Priya: Antenatal Pilates class","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/DSC_0277-Version-2-300x199.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":923,"url":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?p=923","url_meta":{"origin":1411,"position":5},"title":"Antenatal DVD Release: From Bump to Birth.","author":"Priya Tew","date":"13 June, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"From Bump to Birth: Pilates can Help - Southampton Based Pilates Instructor Releases Antenatal Pilates DVD We've only gone and done it, this week sees the release of our Antenatal Pilates DVD and it is looking pretty fabulous! The DVD was filmed when Priya was 18 weeks pregnant and the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;AnteNatal&quot;","block_context":{"text":"AnteNatal","link":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sat on Ball DSC_0884","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Sat-on-Ball-DSC_0884-e1371159430675-199x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1411"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3745,"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1411\/revisions\/3745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}