When to start using gym ball in pregnancy
Using a Birth Ball During Pregnancy | How to Use a Birth Ball to INDUCE LABOR and PREPARE FOR BIRTH
hey mamas if you are trying to prepare
your body for birth or maybe even trying
to induce your labor you have come to
the right place in this video I'm gonna
be sharing with you my labor preparation
and inducing moves to bring you one step
closer to meeting your baby I'm Bridget
and I'm a doula in the San Francisco Bay
Area and I love helping moms love their
birth for more tips and tools on how to
love your own birth make sure you
subscribe hit the little bells so you
don't miss any of my future videos and
so glad that you're here so you want to
meet your baby I get it mama these moves
have helped so many women myself
included who are in the same boat as you
who just want to make sure they are best
preparing themselves for birth and maybe
for some of you trying to get this labor
show on the road so by the end of this
video you will have several methods to
help prepare your body for birth or
induce your labor using a birth ball so
let's get started if you have started
this video and you don't have a birth
ball yet I have an awesome inexpensive
birth ball that you can get it's on my
Amazon list all I'll link it down in the
description below but I love this one I
have all my mom has use it and I use it
for my own pregnancy and my own birth
and I absolutely love it so go get you
one so first of all if you are one of
those moments that I mentioned who is
hoping to go into labor like yesterday I
want to preface this video by saying
that there is no magical position or
method to use with a birth ball or
without a birth ball that is magically
going to send your baby through your
birth canal but what this video is going
to help you do is find great positions
using a birth ball to help really engage
baby in an optimal way in your pelvis to
be putting pressure on your cervix to
helpfully hopefully kickstart labor so
before I get started on any of the moves
I want to show you how to properly sit
on a birth ball so as you are situating
yourself on your birth ball the first
thing I want you to be mindful of is
your stability a lot of times as you
progress in your pregnancy the bigger
you get oftentimes some more unstable
you get and so it's important that if
you are feeling unstable that you have
something near you a couch or a table or
a sturdy chair that you can hold on to
or you do this with your birth partner
or a friend or whoever just so that you
have someone there who can give you
stability if
you are needing it next thing I want you
to be aware of is the angle of your legs
when you are sitting on your birth ball
so you want to make sure that your birth
ball is out of good height so that your
legs are at about a 90 degree angle if
you are experiencing any lower back pain
which a lot of pregnant women experience
you can inflate your ball a little bit
more so it's a little bit higher a
little bit sturdier and so it'll really
help promote a good posture and take a
bit of that pressure and that tension
off your lower back so as you can see as
I'm sitting on the birth ball my knees
are at about a ninety degree angle and
that's about a good place to have it if
your birth ball is too big you might be
too high up on your birth ball and
that's not going to be optimal for
having the movements that I'm going to
be sharing with you and if you're too
low it's going to promote a like poor
posture and you want to make sure that
you are having a nice straight posture
as you are doing these movements just so
you know the ball that's on Amazon is
the one that I'm using now and I am five
three and I use the size large ball and
that's 58 to 65 centimeters so you know
if you're shorter you want a smaller
ball typically if you're a taller you
want a larger ball but the best way to
know if your ball is a good fit for you
is to you know inflate it and see how
you sit on it and if your legs are at
that nice 90 degree angle then you found
a good fit for you
so now that we've gotten all of that
covered we can get started on our birth
ball positions so the first position
that I want to show you is just a nice
easy stretch for you that helps open up
the chest and the womb so that your baby
can move a little bit and helps relieve
some of that tension in the back by
stretching it out so you've probably
done or at least heard of the cat and
cow pose that you do in yoga so we're
just going to do that but do it on the
birth wall and the reason why I like
that is because it allows you to open up
your hips nice and wide but it also lets
you have that nice stretch that I was
talking about so as we are doing the cat
pose we just roll the ball back keeping
our feet nice and stable and giving our
backs a nice stretch feeling it in our
spine you can loosen your head a little
bit let it hang and then roll the ball
up into that cow pose
give that nice little stretch you can
feel your tummy opening up a little bit
giving baby a little bit more room and
then roll back and you can do that as
much as it feels good to you or as
little as it feels good to you but I
love this one during pregnancy I love it
now just because it feels so good on my
back and my body so as we transition
into another move I'm gonna swing over
here and I want you guys to keep in mind
having nice open legs as you are doing
this exercise
one because it helps open and engage
your pelvis and two because it has a
more thorough stretch for you as we do
these positions so the second move that
I want to show you on the birth ball
that can really help with preparing your
body for birth as well as helping baby
get in an optimal position to hopefully
induce labor if you are at that point in
your pregnancy is just to do a nice
little rock with your hips and you can
notice that my legs are still staying
nice and outward and I'm just giving a
nice little rock back and forth it's
controlled it's not like all crazy I
have a strong core and you can do that
even with a baby in your tummy and you
can really feel the stretch too along
your hip flexors which is why it feels
so good during your pregnancy you can do
these positions that these movements as
long or as short as you want of course
the shorter you do them probably the
less effective they will be I'm just
showing you how to do them and you can
choose the length at which you do them
but for our next movement that we're
going to do is just hip circles on the
birth ball and this is so good at
helping get baby their head into a nice
position in the pelvis and so you just
imagine you are drawing a circle with
your bottom and you just make nice big
circles with your hips and after you've
been doing that for a little bit you
want to switch sides so that your
evening out both of your sides so now
the movement that I'm going to show you
is a figure eight and this takes a
little bit more mental energy because
you know it's not just drawing a circle
and now weird
a figure-eight but it's the same concept
so just like we pretended we're drawing
a circle with our hips now we are
drawing an 8 and so the first one that I
want you to do is just drawing a circle
or a figure 8 with your hips from left
to right just like this keeping my hips
nice and stable maybe you need to hold
on to a chair for this in front of you
or you can hold your birth partners arms
if you need some more stability but just
doing it back and forth like this and it
really does help it help open up your
pelvis I can feel it in my hips already
so I just showed you doing the figure 8
from side to side now I want you to try
doing the figure 8 from front to back so
instead of doing it left to right now
we're going forward and backward keeping
our legs nice and open like this and
just imagine your baby of moving with
you engaging in your pelvis putting
pressure on your cervix if it's that
time for you and really engaging in that
optimal position for birth and if this
is not time for your birth and you are
still doing these exercises you are just
preparing your pelvis helping it open up
very nicely so that you are getting
ready for birth so those are a few
exercises that you can be doing on the
ball and they are really simple but they
are really effective in helping open up
that pelvis stretch out those legs
stretch out that back if you're having
any tension and helping baby engage into
a good position in the pelvis so the
last position that I want to show you
while we're sitting on the birth ball is
a light little bounce and this is really
good if you are trying to induce labor
because it's just allowing gravity to
use baby's heaviest part of their body
their head to put pressure on your
cervix and so it's just a nice little
way to help get labor started and it's
also really nice if you know you aren't
trying to induce labor but you just want
to have a little bit of movement if you
are
feeling like you're sitting in a chair
all day I really recommend using a birth
ball to sit on instead of a chair so
that you have that movement throughout
the day so that you're not sitting in
that like like unmovable seat and so you
have a little bit more movement and a
little bit more flexibility with your
hips so if that's you have a little bit
of balance it with your birth ball and
it feels really good and it might just
help you kickstart labor so those are
some really simple movements that you
can do that are actually very effective
during your pregnancy to help prepare
you for birth or to help you induce
labor if that's where you're at during
your pregnancy so try those movements
out let me know what you think about
them but not all movements have to be
done on the birth ball so let's get off
the birth ball for a little bit and let
me show you some movements that you can
do with it but not sitting on it but
before we start on these other movements
I have a question for you guys I know
that so many pregnant women experience
those aches and pains that just
accompany growing a human and so I know
for me I had a lot of tension in my hips
and what helped me the most was walking
using a birth ball or doing yoga but I
want to hear from you guys so that you
guys can be helping each other out what
were some of your aches and pains and
what helped you a best relieve those so
the first position that I want to show
you is a really easy one and I'll show
it to you from add if you different
angles so that you get a good idea of
how to do it but it's pretty easy you
just stick your chest over the birth
ball so you're nice and relaxed kind of
like you're on all fours you still want
to have your legs nice and open like
this but this is a really comfortable
position for you so that you can open up
your belly space that baby has a you
know a good amount of room so they can
be moving around to get in that optimal
position for birth if they aren't
already in one and it also relieves a
lot of that tension on your back because
all that pressure is being now forward
and not always on your back like it is
most of the time during pregnancy so
when you're just like this you can relax
nice and easy like this you can put your
head down and relax on the ball like
that and I don't know if you can tell
but I'm rocking side to side I'll show
you from this angle just having a nice
little rock back and forth create
space for your baby and letting all that
attention go from out of your back so at
the beginning of this video we did cat
and cow well sitting on the ball but you
can also do it while you are on all
fours using the ball for support so you
just get nice and stable with your
elbows on the burst ball and you stretch
out your back doing the cut and then the
cow cat breathing while you're doing
this and cow and again this allows for
that tension to be released from your
back and create space in your womb for
your baby to be moving around to set up
for our next little movement I just want
your bottom sitting over your heels and
a nice little opening between your legs
not so much so that you feel a deep
stretch but just enough so that as you
drape yourself over the birth ball that
were like we're about to do in just a
second your belly rest just nice and
easy between that opening in your legs
so when you have that opening you just
rest your chest lightly on the birth
ball like this and it you can feel a
little stretch in your legs and it again
just creates an opening for baby to move
around and your tummy to get in a good
position and it's just a nice relaxing
restful but effective movement that you
can do the last movement that I want to
show you is not so much for birth prep
or induction but it's like such a relief
during pregnancy so I feel like I need
to show you how to do it and it's just a
nice shoulder stretch and a lot of times
women during pregnancy hold tension in
their upper backs and in their shoulders
especially if they have other kids that
they have to be running around chasing
and so this is a really nice one so
again we're just in our Child's Pose
like we just did in our last in our last
movement and what I want you to do is
put your hands in the middle of your
ball and stretch forward so that your
head goes between your arms and you feel
a little stretch in your shoulders you
can add a little bit of a rock you can
come up and then back down you can do
one arm for a deeper stretch
trade arms and then you come back up and
it's a amazing little stretch that is
going to make you feel like ten times
better than before you did it so these
are some of my favorite movements to do
with a birth ball to help you prepare
your body for labor to help baby get
into an optimal position for birth and
to make you feel great as you're growing
a human so all of these movements have
been for you to use during your
pregnancy to help prepare your body for
birth but if you want to know how to use
a birth ball during your labor then make
sure you are looking out for my next
video it's going to be how to use a
birth ball during birth so make sure you
have been subscribed and hit the little
bells so you don't miss that video if
you like this video make sure you give
me a thumbs up that really helps me out
and I am so glad that you've been here
and I'll see you in the next one bye
mamas
