![[ Pilates in Singapore ]](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Ej7ZK9k0Vys/Rt7O-zPZAoI/AAAAAAAAACE/85X8mXySDq0/s1600/1234.bmp)
I was rather proud of myself, though my doctor never belived I could do it, that I was able to go thru natural delivery without epidural. Looking back at my delivery experience, I think the body awareness I gained thru exercise and Pilates definitely helped in the process.
This was because during labour, the midwife kept asking me to relax, or else the baby wouldn't be able to come thru the birth canal. But seriously I was in so much pain that my whole body was totally tensed up (in fact I was grasping the bed rail so hard with my shivering fingers that the whole bed was shaking). So I figured I had to isolate and relax the muscles in my lower body while allowing the upper body to tense up to help me cope with the labour pain. At the actual delivery, I used "lateral breathing" to fully enlarge my lungs with as much oxygen from the mask as possible to generate energy to push, so voila, it took us only 20 minutes to deliver the baby.
Newly into motherhood, I am quite overwhelmed with all the childcare chores and lack of sleep. But I look forward to resume my exercise regime and Pilates training after my body recovered. At the mean time, I do lots of side stretch like modified mermaid and spine stretch in between feeding time to let go of all the muscle tension build up from long period of sitting.
