Expecting someone special?

Prenatal Pilates is a mind & body training method that prepares you for the changes that take place during pregnancy.  Pilates practice during pregnancy helps support the body’s natural expansion process by building core strength, decompressing the spine and joints, and improving circulation. Expectant mothers will prepare the body for a healthy delivery.

Image Credit: © Christine Gacharna / www.christinegacharna.com

Pregnant women are well informed about nutrition, necessary and require procedures, testing during pregnancy and breathing and relaxation required during labor and delivery.  However, too often, pregnant women forget about exercise and fitness that can benefit them during pregnancy, labor and delivery, and during the post partal period.

Optimal fitness for pregnancy includes taking good care of Mom as well as Baby.  Our classes help you focus on awareness, concentration, precision, breath, centering, balance, flow, control, efficiency and harmony as you prepare for the birth of your child.

Our Certified Prenatal Pilates instructor is a licensed midwife and Registered Nurse with a concentration in pregnancy fitness and focus on women’s healthcare.  Pilates forms an integral part of her philosophy that a woman’s health cannot be divided up into physical, emotional, and spiritual spheres — rather, her vision of Pilates offers to women of all ages a haven where exercise embraces the totality of all three.

• Preparation for labor with breathing and relaxation techniques practiced during each exercise
• Foundation for postpartal period to help return your body shape after birth
• Strengthen mid-back muscles and prepares pelvic floor for labor
• Improve awareness of, strengthen postural muscles
• Increase upper body strength needed for breastfeeding and holding your infant
• Releases Tension
• Focus on deep core muscle
• Insures a better postpartal posture
• Returns your body to prepregancy figure

Image Credit: © Rubberball / www.fotosearch.com

Registration is open for our Prenatal Pilates class with Andrea F. Jeanfreau, Sundays from 4-5 p.m.  Drop-ins welcome!

“Pregnancy should not be a state of confinement, and pregnant women with uncomplicated pregnancies should be encouraged to continue and engage in physical activities. Recreational and competitive athletes with uncomplicated pregnancies may remain active during pregnancy, and modify their usual exercise routines as indicated in this review. All active pregnant women should be examined periodically to assess the effects of their exercise programs on the developing fetus, so that adjustments can be made if necessary. Despite the fact that pregnancy is associated with profound anatomical and physiological changes, exercise has minimal risks and confirmed benefits for most women. … Habits adopted during pregnancy could affect a woman’s health for the rest of her life.”

[Guidelines of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists for exercise during pregnancy and the postpartum period.]