As many women know but rarely discuss, there is a huge shift in our bodies after carrying a child for nine months and going through labor. One common occurrence is urinary and fecal incontinence toward the end of pregnancy and into postpartum. This is caused by the weakening of our pelvic floor due to a variety of factors, such as the pressure of the baby pushing down on your pelvic floor, the strain of childbirth, and tears or an episiotomy during the process of pushing.
Though this may sound discouraging, there is hope, and it comes via more than just kegels. Establishing a consistent yoga practice postpartum is a great way to reengage your pelvic floor strength and reconnect with your body. In addition to the five poses below that will help you focus on regaining your pelvic floor strength, yoga can also increase calmness, decrease anxiety and depression, reduce irritability, increase energy, lower blood pressure, and reduce muscle tension for new mothers.
Postpartum Yoga Poses to Reengage Your Pelvic Floor
We all know getting back into a routine after childbirth is difficult, but always remember that in order for you to care for your child, you must first care for yourself.
Grab a yoga mat, blanket, or towel to dive into the following postures. Aim to hold or flow through each for 30-60 seconds.
Postpartum Yoga Poses: Chair Pose
Begin in a standing forward fold with your feet together. Reach your fingertips to the outside of your feet, bend your knees, and extend your hands over your head. Lift your chest up, bring your triceps by your ears, and place more weight into your heels.
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Postpartum Yoga Poses: Upward Facing Dog
Start in a high plank position, and untuck your toes so the tops of your feet are pressing into the mat. Press your hips down towards the mat, press your chest forward, and roll your shoulders back and down. Ensure that your thighs, knees, and shins are lifted off of the floor.
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Postpartum Yoga Poses: Bridge Pose
Begin lying on your back, place your feet on your mat, and walk your heels into your butt. Bring your hands by your hips, and press into your heels and shoulders to lift your hips up to the ceiling. Attempt to extend your fingers closer to your heels as you reach your hips higher.
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Postpartum Yoga Poses: Bird/Dog Flow
Begin in an all-fours position with your hands stacked over your wrists and elbows and your knees directly under your hips. Extend your right leg forward and your left leg back. Ensure that your wrist and shoulder are in one line as well as your ankle and hip. Once you find balance, pull your elbow and knee into the midline of your body. Then return your limbs to their extended position. Repeat this movement for 60 seconds on each side of the body.
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Postpartum Yoga Poses: Warrior 2
Begin with your feet hips width apart, and pivot your right foot towards the front of your mat. Ensure that your right heel and left arch are in a straight line. Bend your right knee to a 90-degree angle, and reach your arms out to a T. Press into both pinky toes and squeeze your inner thighs into the mid-line of your body.
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Skylar sees things differently. At the time, she was shooting content on her iPhone. Temi came into the picture with a new perspective, an understanding of tech, and, eventually, a camera. “He doesn't give himself enough credit,” Skylar says. “He wasn't just my tripod. He wasn't just standing behind the camera and going ‘click.’ He was giving advice. He was giving me insight to how I could look at things from a different perspective. And I was like, 'Oh, he’s an artist.' I think it was maybe a heartbeat of that kind of energy of like, ‘Baby, can you take this picture?’ And it turned so quickly into, we're partners. We can work together in a way where we're advancing each other's creative thinking.”
The pair often says they’re two sides of the same coin. Skylar is an Aquarius. She attended art school, paints, and loves poetry. She’s more than happy to let the couple’s management firm and agency, Kensington Grey, handle their admin work. And, she loves to sleep in. Temi, on the other hand, wakes up early. He’s a Virgo. He loves a to-do list and regularly checks in on the couple’s brand partnerships spreadsheet to make sure everything is on track.
Because his storytelling was steeped in his love of technology, he didn’t always think of himself as a creative person. “Where I [am] the dreamer who wants to pluck things out of the sky and spend all day with my head in the clouds, Temi [is] so good at grounding me and helping me figure out how to make things make sense on paper. We just work together in such a complimentary way,” Skylar says.
It’s been more than six years since Brooklyn-based couple Temi and Skylar started dating, and nearly four since they cemented their working relationship. On TikTok and Instagram, the couple’s travel, fashion, and home content regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views. They’ve worked with brands such as Coach, Aesop, Away, and Liquid IV, bringing their vibrant perspectives to every campaign they execute. Still, nearly two years since both Temi and Skylar committed to full-time content creation and creative directing, the couple says their romantic connection remains their priority.
“We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting,” Skylar says.
Working from home can make it hard to separate work from personal life for any entrepreneur. It can be even more challenging when your business partner is also your lover. Temi and Skylar had already used couples therapy as a tool to help them effectively communicate with one another. When they ran into challenges while working together, their therapist helped them set physical boundaries to help combat the issues.
"We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting."
“It actually took us doing very specific physical things to create boundaries between work and play in our relationship,” Skylar says. “So, for instance, we will only have conversations about work when we're out of bed or we're at the table or in the office. Initially, when we started, we had to light a candle to say that, 'Okay, this is a space where we're connecting, we’re not talking about work.' We needed really hard boundaries at the top. And then it became a little bit more organic.”
The boundaries have been crucial to implement, especially because the couple began working together so naturally. When the pair first met, Skylar was NY-based a social strategist for BuzzFeed and was using content creation to drive business to her lingerie company. She was shooting her own content. Temi was working for Microsoft in D.C. He’d recently traded in his DJing equipment for a camera. “I've always loved taking pictures,” he says. “Even when I was a kid, my African mother would wake me up at 3:00 a.m. [during a] party, and be like, 'Come take the family picture.'”
Growing up, Temi says he watched his parents support each other and be the true definition of partners. He knew he wanted the same for his own relationship. But, the couple also wanted to make sure they were being financially responsible. The pair didn’t quit their traditional jobs until they’d saved up two years' worth of their cost of living. And, Temi received his Master of Business Administration from New York University with the knowledge that it could either help him advance in his corporate career or be applicable to his business with Skylar.
Temi and SkylarCj Hart @hartbreakToday, they say their working relationship is more of a “quiet dance.” They still implement some of the boundaries they learned in therapy, but they also lean into their natural strengths and deep love for one another. When we speak, Temi has planned a date for the couple to see Princess Mononoke in 4K IMAX and added it to their Notion so they can factor it into their busy schedules. “I fully plan to date for the rest of my life,” he says.
Skylar says the couple doesn’t just wait for date nights to check in with one another, though. This often happens in the mornings, after Temi has made her peppermint tea and poured himself a cup of coffee. When they ask each other how they slept, she says, it’s not just a “nicety.” It’s a genuine question meant to foster connection.
“A lot of it happens during the day in the midst of work. We'll stop and we'll hug. Or we’ll slow dance in the kitchen,” she says. “Sometimes it's hard to set a whole date night when you have 7,000 things going on. So, we must grasp these moments and check in when we can. And I think it's become so organic to us that I actually didn't even realize how often we do it. But all day long, we're like, 'Are you good? I felt like your energy shifted,' because we're best friends, we just know. We just feel it happen.”
What’s better than being in love? Building wealth while doing it. Watch Making Cents here for real stories of couples who make money moves together.
Featured image by Cj Hart @hartbreak