Pregnancy is another place we see the difference between posture and alignment. You all know the common pregnancy posture: pelvis and belly pushed forward with hands resting on the low back. It’s normal to see this all around us, but it’s not good alignment. Ideally, you would stand the same whether you are pregnant or not. If you haven’t read the last few posts, start by reading “Alignment, is that like posture?” and “Stand up Straight!” to bring you up to speed.
When you are pregnant, you still want all your pieces stacked perpendicular to the ground. In fact, this may be even more important when you are pregnant. If you add 30 extra pounds to a frame that is unstable, you are going to notice pain or dysfunction at the “weakest link”. For example, maybe you stand with your pelvis thrusting forward and have occasional back pain. Then you get pregnant and have excruciating back pain. Is the pain cause by the pregnancy? No, it’s the result of putting extra weight on a skeleton that was already misaligned. Pregnancy magnifies whatever misalignment you had going into the pregnancy.
This is my dear friend Leanne about 38 weeks pregnant. She is such a good sport. (Fun fact- she actually went into labor an hour after I took these photos. On the left we have the typical pregnant posture. Imagine her hands on her lower back, belly pushing forward as she waddles along. (I say “imagine”, because Leanne worked so hard on her alignment during pregnancy that she never actually waddled.) Her pelvis is leaning forward and her torso is leaning back. Her pelvis is posteriorly tilted (aka, tailbone tucked under), and her feet turned out. On the right we have a beautifully stacked skeleton. Her ear, shoulder, hip, knee, ankle are all in a vertical line. She has a neutral pelvis with her rib cage stacked right on top and her feet straight.
Picture A: Typical Pregnancy Posture (Just say no.)
Picture B: Aligned and Pregnant (Gold star!)
A pregnant woman who stands like Picture A will likely have more back pain, but alignment affects more than whether or not she is in pain. I’d like you to notice two very important things: the shape of her belly and the shape of her rear end. It’s ok, I asked her permission to have a bunch of strangers (although, let’s be honest, not that many) analyzing her very pregnant figure. Can you see that both her belly and her backside are completely different shapes in the two different pictures? In the typical pregnancy posture (Picture A) her rear end is flattened out and looks smaller. Her belly is sort of pointing upwards. In the aligned picture, you can see her gluts look bigger (in a good way) and her belly is pointing straight ahead.
Looking at the shape of Leanne’s body is a subjective assessment, but it illustrates an important underlying concept: How you stand affects your pregnancy, labor and delivery in very real ways.
1) Better baby positioning in utero. You are the container in which your baby lives. When you change your shape, you change the shape of your baby’s container, and the baby will adjust accordingly. How you stand during pregnancy can help (Picture B!) the baby to be in an optimal position for delivery. More on this here.
2) Appropriate pelvic floor tension. Standing with the pelvis in a post tilt (tucked under, like Picture A) causes excessive tension in the pelvic floor and inactive gluts. You want your pelvic floor to be relaxed enough to let a baby pass through more easily. You also want your pelvic floor to be strong enough to hold up your organs and hold in your pee. You need strong gluteal muscles to achieve this not too tight/not too loose pelvic floor muscle length. When you stand like Picture B, your gluts are being used all day long to hold you up and move you around. They will become as strong as they need to be to support your pregnant body and balance out the pelvic floor.
3) Increased birth space. The strong gluts mentioned above will pull the sacrum posterior (back), increasing the birth space (who doesn’t want that?). In addition to changing how you stand, you can also START squatting and STOP doing kegels. For more on squatting and pelvic floor health, read what the Alignment Monkey has to say.
For an extra challenge, try this online class that has a lot of one leg squatting: A Balanced Approach to Hip Strength.
If you are pregnant, and live in Middle Tennessee, contact me to start your complete prenatal alignment program!
Anthology Wellness 
I attribute a healthy pregnancy and relatively “uneventful” delivery largely in part to taking Taylor’s alignment classes. I felt so good during my 3rd trimester (while I was taking her classes)! Also important to note: Learning the basics of proper body alignment also helped my post-partum recovery. Because I stayed healthy and followed her exercise recommendations while pregnant, my body seemed to recover quickly. I was even able to do some of the alignment exercises a week or two after delivery.
Taylor, you’re an awesome teacher and I recommend your classes to anyone who desires a healthy pregnancy, delivery, and recovery!!!!
Thanks for sharing Leanne! You worked really hard, and it paid off!