How Soon Can You Practice Yoga After Having a Baby?

You can start yoga as early as week 2 after giving birth, as long as you had a normal delivery without any postpartum complications.

Postpartum healing starts with breath, posture and awareness. Yoga offers you all of that, and the sooner you start, the better.

But it shouldn’t start in a class for the general population at your local studio or gym, or a YouTube video. While yoga is generally considered a gentle way to exercise, yoga asana designed for the general population will still be too aggressive for your healing body.

There are two safe ways to practice yoga after having your baby:

1. Start on your own at home. Work on restoring your 360 breathing. Stack your ribs over your pelvis and head over ribs when you stand, walk or feed your baby. Try a few pelvic tilts on the floor, moving with your breath. Exhale when you pick your baby up, inhale when you lay the baby down.
   

2. Join a postnatal-specific yoga class around week 3 or 4, if you feel comfortable with that. A trained postnatal yoga teacher will know how to help you in those early weeks. If you prefer to wait to join a class until your doctor has cleared you for exercise, that’s okay.
   

But, if you're waiting for clearance from your doctor, there are still plenty of safe movements you can do in the meantime to jumpstart your healing.

I am going to teach them all to you next Wednesday, February 21st in my FREE online workshop called How to Heal After Birth with Yoga.

This workshop is for anyone currently pregnant, postpartum, or anyone planning a pregnancy in the future. There is a special section for C-Section considerations, so don't let stop you from signing up.

If you can’t make it live, sign up anyway. Anyone registered will receive a recording that you can watch and practice later.

Click here to sign up.