Why Prenatal Fitness? Holistic Coach Camille shares her experience
trust in the wisdom within us
When I reflect on birth, I have to pause, and looong exhale because even 6 months later I'm still healing on some level. This brief stall in time is to honor the shape/shift and soul changing process it is to bring a baby earthside.
I felt like I died a little while my lifeforce funneled to my little one on her journey into the world. Praying, groaning, moving, swaying, stretching, breathing, opening up, straining, and attuning to a force greater than me. The teachings of my ancestors were all stored in my body ready to be unlocked at just the right time with birth, it was all within my cells.. So while my mind was in chaos trying to make sense of what was happening, my body remembered.
My “rapid labor” ended with the amazing Yana Rose arriving in our blue subaru on the corner of Lorimer and Lee Street in Brooklyn on 9/9/19. Not the water birth I had planned at the Brooklyn Birthing Center, but a safe and healthy birth all the same.
Birthing is an initiation and a wild VERY PHYSICAL journey that takes you from being a maiden to mother.
I’ve been a personal trainer for almost 2 decades and I have worked with many women during their pregnancies. I am well-versed on the evidence that having an active pregnancy keeps women happier and healthier during and after their pregnancies (less Anxiety, Depression, Gestational Diabetes, and less back and body pain and less weight gain during and after pregnancy). I always thought it was awesome that these mamas-to be were staying active but as I had never experienced birth, or the months after birth known as “the 4th trimester,” I never realized just how important a fitness practice is.
Now that I have gone through this doorway, I am shouting from the rooftops that staying or getting FIT during pregnancy is essential!!!
When you birth, it feels like your life force leaves you and then tack on no sleep, the physical healing every mama requires, and having a babe with you 24/7 and you get start to get it…. Mamas are experiencing a MAJOR DEFICIT in life force energy at a time when they are having to stretch themselves to the edge.
Which brings me to the big message here:
Mamas- to-be:
I wish for you to have a fitness practice that focuses on vitality, strength, and helping you stay nimble in body, mind & spirit. It should have you feeling good and groovy, like the GODDESS you are!!!
World:
Can we all promise to try to support our new mamas? Remember the energy deficit and see what you can do to help them in little ways (give them food, run errands, lend them emotional support)
With love!!
Camille Eroy-Reveles MPH
If you would like some support in developing a practice that feels right for your body, contact us. We would love to help you feel ready for this beautiful experience of becoming a mother.
**if you are in need of birthing support online, reach out to the wonderful doula Anna Badoian here.