How Posture Affects Pregnancy Health

It’s amazing how many pregnant women focus on superficial aspects of health and beauty. They are often concerned about clothes and jewelry and hairstyles and eager to buy the latest anti-wrinkle cream, musky perfume, or high-end makeup. What these women don’t realize is that there’s one thing that can make a huge difference in how they look and feel and that’s posture.
Not only is good posture essential to your own health and beauty, it can allow more nutrients to get to your growing baby and help make giving birth easier. Let’s take a look at poor habits and how good posture can make a very positive difference in nearly all aspects of prenatal health.
Head Forward Posture
Also referred to as kyphotic posture, head forward posture is caused by allowing your ribcage to drop, especially when sitting down. Sitting is usually equated with a more relaxed stance and hence many women, especially those who are expecting, hunch their neck and head forward without even thinking. When you’ve got a nice big belly in front of you, it’s natural to rest your upper body on it.
Unfortunately, kyphosis is very bad for your internal organs, respiration and circulation. It compresses everything, making it difficult to take deep breaths and allow fluids to flow throughout your body and causing swelling. This means the same things are happening to the baby in your womb, too.
If you want a very visual reminder to sit up straight, try this trick from a posture book author: take a ribbon and pin one end to your shirt at chest level, then stretch the ribbon taut and pin the opposite end to the bottom of your shirt. Whenever there’s slack in the ribbon, you know you’re reverting back to a kyphotic posture.
Shoulders Rounded Forward Posture
Another type of posture, where your shoulders come forward, is quite common in people who work on a computer for much of their work day – or moms who are frequently bending over Public Health Topics For Presentation to pick up a baby. It could also be due to poor muscle tone; your back muscles need to be strong enough to contract in order to keep your shoulders in their proper place.
Standing or sitting with shoulders rounded forward, in a slouchy stance, affects your joints. During pregnancy, your joints and entire pelvic floor are softening anyway Public Health Topics For Research Paper in preparation for giving birth. When you have poor posture, it makes the problem worse. Quite often, this leads to what can sometimes be very severe lower back pain.
When your back hurts, try pulling your shoulders back and then down into their proper place. It helps to pull in your abdominal muscles, as well. When your shoulders are properly aligned, it takes a great deal of strain off your back. Of course, the stronger your back and abdominal muscles are, the easier it is to maintain proper posture. And the better your posture is now, the less painful your labor is bound to be later.
If you are having a problem thinking about your posture and then adjusting for bad habits and baby weight, try one of the new posture garments that automatically contact the nerve endings of your back and cue the muscles to properly align your spine. This is the easiest way to maintain proper posture at all times and take the strain off your back.
Posture is an essential part of good health, particularly during pregnancy. Feel your best and look your best both now and during childbirth by practicing proper posture.