Thread: Preganant/Mommy instructors how did you do it?

Maybe this has been covered already however I would like to know how any instructors out there who taught while pregnant or as new moms coped? Did you slow down your class? Did you stop altogether? Did you teach as long as you could? And if so how long?
Did you have problems maintaining your class? Were your students sympathetic?
How did you modify your class and did you enlist the help of more advanced students as helpers?
Did any of you make a prenatal belly dance dvd?
And finally! Did anyone notice that belly dance helped them through their pregnancy?
Questions, questions! I know! But I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts.

BD absolutely helped me through my pregnancy!

I had someone lined up to sub in case I needed it- fortunately, last kids were both born during Christmas break when I can't maintain students anyway! we just delayed starting class again until Feb when I was past my 6 week check up.

I modified WHAT I taught- slow taxim instead of drum solo, for sure! and I learned how to teach without dancing the whole time myself. It was a challenge, but I had been in a car accident which limited my mobility previously, so I had some experience in that. It is really hard to hold back on the demos or dancing too much when you don't have a brace on reinforcing the fact that you shouldn't be dancing! honestly, for my 1st 3 pregnancies, I didn't have to limit myself as much, just this last one really knocked me off my feet for a while.

I don't teach but belly dancing definitely helped me so far. I was having really bad hip pain, and whenever I danced it went away. For a while, I was walking around doing hip circles or figure eights just so I wouldn't have the hip pain. Right now I am on restriction but I am hoping to be dancing soon as I still have some hip pain. I am 5 and half months along right now.

Soooooo is congrats in order??

Eshta, are you teasing us? What's new over there?

I am currently 7 and a half months and still happily teaching! It really has helped because it is my main form of exercise. I find other forms (running, lifting weights, even walking) are tough on my tender hip ligiments.

As for teaching, I had my students pay for this final 'semester' in its entirety. I haven't touched the money with the exception of paying my studio rental fee and I told them that if it gets too much for me or I get orders to stop that I will refund them the money for the classes they don't get. I am three weeks away from the end and so far, so good! The woman who I rent the studio from is also very sympathetic and only charges me a month at a time, so that is awesome too....

Also, I chose to focus on veil technique/choreography this time around, so focusing less on torso isolations/undulations, but more on extension, footwork, veil movement, etc. During the choreo section of class, I will show them three or four times, then have them run it on their own, giving me a bit of a break.....

I am not teasing! I am gonna be a mama. It's crazy because I have be staunchly against children and motherhood my whole life. Now I am in a blissed out love filled pregnancy. Just goes to show how fast your mind can change! But my doctor doesn't want me to do anything!!! No walking no exercising nothing. I explained that class is an important part of my financial health and I can't pay rent without it sometimes so she reluctantly told me to modify and direct instead of doing. I also don't want to lose my position at the Y because they have free daycare. I have one advanced student who knows and she said she would lead drum solos and saidi stuff for me so I feel very lucky. I was just wondering what everyone's experience with this is like.
I felt so much better after being in class last night. Just stretching and moving felt so right.I have been dancing for so long that stopping makes me restless and depressed.

Congrats!!!!!!!!!! When are you due? I feel your pain about the no dancing. I was able to dance until my last appointment when they saw my placenta is a tad to close to the cervix so as a precaution I can't do anything. This past couple of weeks have been the longest I've gone without dancing in years and I am hoping for good news at my next appointment.

Eshta!!! OMG! Congrats!! :)

Jenna started having me sub all her classes at DG when she was about 8 months along, and then she picked them up again when Iz was about 4 months, I think. She didn't modify much that I recall.

When I was preggers with Jax (6 years ago, I wasn't yet teaching) was taking classes 2/week until about 8 months as well. My doc said "by all means, keep dancing."

I thought the general rule was you could continue to do most types of physical activity that you were doing prior to the pregnancy (with some exceptions, of course). I don't know what I would have done if my doc told me not to move. Did he/she say why?? Yikes! If you want a second opinion I can give you info for a great ob/gyn Burbank. Let me know. :)

congrats eshta!!!!

Thanks girls! I just have to stay immobile cause I got preggers with an IUD. I had it for seven years. I had the IUD removed immediately but apparently you never know.
But now I feel great and happy and I am ready to go! I can't sit on my ass completely or I'll go insane!!!

CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm 19 weeks or so now and still teaching my beginners class. I only have one class and a handful of students. They are sympathetic. I am able to do most everything still but some things feel odd like the twisting of tunesians and the floating choo choo shimmy...i feel more elephant like when I do it. I have to modify a lot of the end of class stretches to accommodate my belly (make room for it).

I haven't really slowed down my class but i'm not doing drum solos like I wanted to and we are not doing a choreography just combos. So I have altered things a bit and plant to teach into October. I'm not sure if I will go beyond that or not. I might do a few workshops on something specific but not a week to week class.

I wasn't teaching with my last pregnancy but was taking classes and workshops when I could. I used A LOT of the moves when I was in labor....like figure 8's and level hip circles etc....helped the little one get into position. I honed my zilling (muffled) more after my son was born when it was to soon for me to leave him and travel to class.

HUGS and CONGRATS to you!!!!

Congrats!

I am due today (still preggers, though!) and I taught until two weeks ago. And the only reason I stopped was because my sciatica got so bad I could barely walk, let alone dance.

I didn't really change my classes at all - obviously I couldn't demonstrate some moves anymore (because my body just doesn't move that way right now!), so I would ask an experienced student to show the class what I was talking about. And towards the end, my stamina took a hit, so I would demonstrate once or twice and then watch and correct while the students did it.

But other than that, it was class as usual!

Congrats!!!

Hey Daniela - Are you going to birth in a hospital or at home? I am seriously considering at home with a mid wife.

Originally Posted by eshtabellydance

Hey Daniela - Are you going to birth in a hospital or at home? I am seriously considering at home with a mid wife.

Hospital, but I had a friend who just did a home birth and loved the experience. She had a midwife and a doula.

OMG! Congratulations, Eshta!!!

I don't teach, but I continued taking classes and being in troupe until about 7 months. I purchased a pre-natal bellydance DVD from Amazon, but I didn't really use it. It's not that it was bad, but it wasn't really anything different (that I could tell), then just making your movements more soft and gentle.

I really think that having all of those muscles toned and exercised regularly helped with my birthing experience. I know that it's different for everyone, but I only had 15 minutes of hard labor/pushing, and my doc was really surprised that I just knew "which" muscles I was supposed to be using to push the baby out.

If you do decide to go with the hospital, I just have to say, I know everyone has their own opinions, but I'm really glad that I had an epidural. It was a gift from God - not even exaggerating. I was in a much better place mentally to deal with the idea of becoming a mother. Plus I'm a wimp, and I don't deal well with pain... ;)

Congrats, again!!!!!!

CONGRATS!!! That is so wonderful!
WOOHOO!

Congratulations and best wishes, Eshta!!! That's so exciting!!!


(And if you start raising funds for nursery furniture, don't even *think* about selling our green Venus to anyone but me.)

Wow did I read this thread way late! CONGRATULATIONS!!! :)

Congratulations!! I just had a baby myself on July 28. I taught into my 8th month. I felt the best after class! And I think it definitely helped during delivery. This is super exciting news!!

i had my last private with my teacher 3 days before she gave birth to ansuya...ms.rathor did /does a lot of yoga!

Yay! Sounds like everyone had an easy time teaching. I also love class and feel better afterwards but I just missed my first one tonight due to nausea and almost throwing up in the car on the way there.

Originally Posted by eshtabellydance

I also love class and feel better afterwards but I just missed my first one tonight due to nausea and almost throwing up in the car on the way there.

talk to your doc/midwife about taking vitamin B6 (aka pyridoxine) supplements if you want to calm the nausea. it helped me quite a bit!

Morning sickness - which is a misnomer - usually only lasts through the first trimester. Cracker, soda water (Sprite is also good) taking things slowly. Make sure you stay hydrated. I had one friend who lived on Popsicle through out this part of her pregnancy. But this is actually good, because it tells you that your hormone levels are high and it increases the chances of having a healthy pregnancy.

{{{HUGS}}}

a few other things that can help (everyone is different!)

ginger- candied ginger, raw ginger, I liked the 'natural' ginger ale- I think both the real ginger & the fizzy helped

smelling citrus- orange peels, lemon oil, etc.
I have access to a great lemon ginger lip balm that actually helped a little on it's own, just having the smell under my nose. Let me know if you want some & I'll send it your way!

fruit lozenges/lollypops- there are official 'preggy pops' but I found any strong fruit flavored candy helped

papaya enzyme tablets

lots of water

chocolate ice cream (careful!) I felt like I lived on pilot biscuits & rocky road for a month or 2 during one of my pregnancies!

Originally Posted by eshtabellydance

Hey Daniela - Are you going to birth in a hospital or at home? I am seriously considering at home with a mid wife.

imagine in Hungary, my country, this has not been controlled legally yet and the leading and best and most known midwife was arrested for the 3rd time now. I almost had home birth but my son won- he was 36 w prenatal:)so, hospital. but healthy by now.

Congratulations belly dancing mamas. I am currently 5 months pregnant myself and thinking about teaching prenatal belly dance. I have continued to belly dance myself at home, but am currently not teaching. I do find that it is helping me also with my hip pain.
Estha- I wanted a homebirth so bad, but it has been hard to find a midwife that does homebirths here in South Florida so I have settled for hospital birth with midwife. If you can do it at home I totally would. I just hope that I am able to use my belly dancing while I am in labor.
Does any one know of any references for prenantal belly dance classes. I would feel more comfortable teaching it with a little more background. I taught belly dance classes to normal women, but dont know how much to modify for pregnant women?

Katina- you can email me at alaskadancer at alaska dot net & I'd be happy to answer prenatal class questions.

I also highly recommend the book Women's Fitness Program Development available through Human Kinetics- addresses various life stages from puberty to menopause.

Congratulations Eshta

My little girl is now 2 years old. But i danced, taught and performed all the way through my pregnancy. I had to avoid twisty shimmies and any really sharp moves are not good to do when pregnant and i avoided any really fast drum solos. I chose to teach slower choreographies and technique towards the end of my pregnancy. If we performed somewhere and it usually required a twisty shimmy or something i would just modify it and improv that bit and sit my hands on my big belly with a big smile if in a group performance so the audience understood that i had to avoid it as baby didnt like that move. Audiences loved seeing me heavily pregnant performing for them. At 8 month mark i performed at a Womens Health Forum where they were trying to get women to be more active. So you can imagine that this went down really well :-)

Your body will tell you which moves to avoid. For example if i tried to do a slow twisty shimmy baby would make me feel sick, ha ha (notice i said i tried moves slowly so i knew straight away which ones upset things). But my body didnt mind undulations even though i was told to avoid these ... i was very surprised that i could still do them and that baby didnt mind at all ... perhaps it was like a slow massage ... and surely it helped maintain my core strength ready for labour. I think if you are not in tune with your body as i am then avoid all moves that could hurt you or your baby.

The only problem i had was that when the hormones in my body softened up my ligaments my old knee injury no longer had any support and i fell to the ground during a performance when it gave way. I would have been about 7 months pregnant so scared everyone who was there. Thank God for a Martial Art background and falling correctly. I gracefully got up at my own pace and continued to dance (carefully with that knee). Afterwards i felt fine other than my knee and went to the hospital just to make sure everything was ok. I am RH Negative so it was important for me to go even though i felt fine. They gave me a needle to make sure my body wasnt going to reject the baby. But i was fine and so was baby.

I even did figure 8s and hip circles to music during labour ... this helped until things got too intense. I have permanent spinal damage so was worried how i would go in labour as were a lot of people. But thankfully due to my dancing all the way through my pregnancy i maintained my core strength which really helped during labour. My doctor who knew about my back injury wanted me to keep dancing and at check ups she was always really happy about how i was going. Now Alyssa my baby is 2 and she loves to dance and drum with me and has a really good sense of rhythm. She has been dancing and drumming since the womb :-)

Originally Posted by katinabellydancer

Congratulations belly dancing mamas. I am currently 5 months pregnant myself and thinking about teaching prenatal belly dance. I have continued to belly dance myself at home, but am currently not teaching. I do find that it is helping me also with my hip pain.
Estha- I wanted a homebirth so bad, but it has been hard to find a midwife that does homebirths here in South Florida so I have settled for hospital birth with midwife. If you can do it at home I totally would. I just hope that I am able to use my belly dancing while I am in labor.
Does any one know of any references for prenantal belly dance classes. I would feel more comfortable teaching it with a little more background. I taught belly dance classes to normal women, but dont know how much to modify for pregnant women?

I would be really careful about teaching pregnant women belly dancing. I think its fine as long as the woman has been belly dancing all along. I didnt stop belly dancing and danced the whole way through my pregnancy and i can see that you are still dancing which will really help you during labour. But when you have pregnant dance students who have never done belly dancing before i think you would need to do your homework and make sure that the movements you are teaching are slow and gentle ... more of a relaxing meditative dance. I have thought about doing this myself. Have you discovered the book and dvd Dance of the Womb by Maha Al Musa. There are several other belly dance dvds too but Maha is also a doula and assists at births. She also had home births. She is on facebook too and would be happy to talk to you. She is a lovely lady