Pregnancy & Scoliosis

Good good afternoon, everyone um welcome to yoga berry and welcome to backchat, which is my weekly live stream here on youtube. It’S happening at 4 p.m, um, uk time every wednesday and you’re obviously always welcome to join us live here, which is always a little bit more interesting because you can, you can join the conversation and if you can’t make it live, you can always watch it on The on the replay, you can always catch up afterwards, so if you are here right now, please let us know that everything is working, all right, that you can hear me. Okay, that you can see me. Okay, that’s always really really helpful and today i’ve actually got another interview guest.

So i’m i’m really really excited to be talking to the lovely anna klein and she is known on instagram as backup yogi. So some of you might know her already and we’re going to be talking about pregnancy and scoliosis, which is just a topic that always comes up so um. I’M really really excited just to hear about her experience. Obviously i do i’ve got children. I’Ve got two kids, so i’ve got a little bit to to add myself as well um, but anna has has just been going through it.

So her experience is much more recent, so i’m sure she’s got a lot to say about that and i can see some of you are joining in already so come and say, hello, come and say: um tell us where you’re from where you’re tuning in from and I’M just gon na bring up anna here so welcome anna hello. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me and um anna is in cologne in in germany, which is very close to my hometown. So it’s really really exciting to to connect with you. So thank you so much. Thank you so much for inviting me um.

Shall we start by? Would you mind telling us a little bit about your personal um scoliosis story before we kind of get into the the the pregnancy part of it, but just kind of um? When was your scoliosis diagnosed and then um? What kind of happened until you got pregnant until that time sure my scoliosis was diagnosed when i was 12 and i had to wear a back brace for about four years and it got a lot better through that and through physiotherapy as well and after that. I continued doing the exercises and it got really a lot better and then i went to fuerteventura and did a lot of yoga and started my yoga journey and through that and through surfing it was always.

I didn’t really have a lot of pain and then i broke my acl and then i got a little bit worse because i had to um hold still like my leg for such a long time, so i had just um like to use one side, so i Was kind of hanging in my scoliosis, so it got uh 10 degrees worse during that time within like half a year, wow, okay, yeah – and that was the time when i thought okay, i really have to do something and that’s where i really started practicing like everyday Yoga and strengthening my back yeah and yeah, that’s kind of where i am today so how long ago was this that that was 2015

Okay, when i had the surgery and yeah okay, so you had a surgery as well for um for this accident, not for the for scoliosis yeah, for my knee, not for my back yeah yeah. Exactly yes, and sometimes it’s during that time, when you’re um recovering from an injury, isn’t it and you’re kind of avoiding, as you say you you might be avoiding? Well, you have to isn’t that because you’re healing in a different part of your body that something else can affect it, but that’s really interesting. So how sorry can if i can ask how old were you when you, when it progressed um by 10 degrees 2015? I was 27

Okay okay yeah great and then um [Music] so it progressed by by 10 degrees i i would imagine yeah there’s a lot of things that that kind of go through your mind during during that time when you kind of well i can imagine that um you kind of thought that this was behind you wasn’t it because you had already been wearing the the back brace and you’ve you had done all your um specific scoliosis exercises or the physio exercises and then you’re grown up and you’re not really feeling any pain and then it kind of starts again isn’t it i don’t know yeah i was i was kind of devastated because i’ve been doing so much exercises and stuff and then i saw the x-ray and i was like no way like it cannot be true that it got so like worse in such a short time and i was a bit scared that it would continue getting worse but um through strengthening like the right muscles i think i could like fix it again or keep it stable as it was by then and um but yeah it was kind of like a back throw yes and what type of curvature do you have just so we can we can picture it and like which one is it going to the right to the left is it another okay i have uh one up here that goes to the left and i have one in the lower back like um between lower back and the chest that goes to the right so it’s like an s it’s like an s okay so not the typical right thoracic left lumbar but the opposite basically yeah yeah okay great right so i’m just checking who’s here at the moment so we’ve got a few people watching so if you are here live um please say hello tell us where you from and if you’ve got any questions for um anna and i will be asking her about um pregnancy in a moment so i’m i’m just wondering so if i’m kind of thinking back um at to this time when when i had my children or when when i was first pregnant there were a few things that kind of were going on in my mind um in terms of scoliosis but i i want to know how you felt so did you did you kind of make this were you pregnant and then thought um did you have any kind of concerns about your your scoliosis for this time yeah i did because a lot of doctors or physiotherapists told me when i was younger that if i ever get pregnant like they told me like try to get pregnant as late as possible right because it’s gonna get a lot worse and that was kind of stuck in my mind um so i always had the connection okay if i get pregnant it’s gonna get worse like no matter what and um when i got pregnant i went to the doctor and i asked him like okay um now i’m pregnant so it’s gonna get a lot worse and he said no it doesn’t have to be that way of course it can be that it gets worse but it’s not a correlation that it always happens yeah and i was i felt the release i was like okay that’s good news and um i was a bit scared of the birth itself because i thought okay maybe i can’t give birth the natural way but the doctor said that like he saw my x-ray and he said because i don’t have a curvature in the lumbar spine yeah so he said it shouldn’t be a problem like i was really scared of c-section right okay i have to have a c-section but she said it’s gonna be fine it’s gonna be fine yes and and were you um was it was it more for concern about uh kind of pain relief or um was it more um like injections or was it a concern about giving birth itself that the position of the pelvis or what what was the thing that the that the doctors would have had reservations about i don’t know if that makes sense but um i think that like the courage gets a lot worse and how do i say like one doctor said me once he told me like yeah it’s like a it’s like a house your spine is like a house that starts falling apart right the older you get like the more it goes like this you know okay and he said and if it starts going like down you can’t do anything about it so i think that was the thing that i was so scared that if i get older and now i get pregnant and it gets even worse that i will have to like um that so much of the quality of my life gets taken away maybe like this yes so i mean some well um that’s definitely what what they told me it’s the it’s the hormones during pregnancy isn’t it the relaxin and all of that that make everything a little bit softer and there can be more change and that’s the kind of the period of time or they say pregnancy and then menopause is another one obviously for hormonal changes um where things can obviously change but my teacher for example so i trained also with um elise browning miller and she was saying that pregnancy is actually a great time when you can also reverse it and make things better yeah so how would i took from it because okay if it can get a lot worse and through the hormones like why can’t it get a lot better hmm yes exactly exactly so um so you were pregnant you were a little bit worried um did you continue with your yoga practice did you change your yoga practice how did you kind of i continued but the first three months i tried to really do just a soft practice because it’s not well you have to be a bit careful in the first three months that’s what the doctors told me so i did a lot of yin yoga um and i tried to calm down to do a lot for myself and to just yeah feel good in my body so that the little human being can grow inside of me and after that after the three months i started doing a bit more a little bit more powerful yoga again a little bit like um flows and for my back so yeah i actually did yoga until the end until the end until the end of the pregnancy yeah yeah and your little one how old is your little one now now she’s uh eight months she’s eight months old okay yeah good so um did you have any any back pain during during your pregnancy did you have any problems where you think this could could have been due to scoliosis well actually i had a lot less pain than before okay interesting i don’t know if it was through the hormones that it got a lot like softer everything but uh before pregnancy i always had um back pain in the lower back and that was gone and i was like okay i thought you know everyone told me pregnancy is about like back pain and and it got better so i was really happy hmm brilliant brilliant and just in the like in the last i would say three four weeks before giving birth i mean i think it’s normal because i think everyone if you have such a huge belly then uh it got let’s say problematic because i didn’t know how to sleep anymore and yeah yeah yes exactly and that’s as you say you know that’s kind of that’s everyone really is we’re still without scoliosis but i remember from my pregnancy probably around i think it was about like 15 or 16 weeks and that’s when something for me changed and i think that’s the time when the um you know when the belly all of the sudden pops out and you can actually see it and that’s when the the the center of gravity or something changed and that’s when i had a little bit of just like a couple of days where i was like uh you know something has changed and i just had a couple of um appointments with the osteopath and then it then it was fine but um yeah i mean i have a very similar experience that i did i probably had less back pain during that time maybe also because you look after yourself a little bit better yeah maybe because you you have to i mean you’re you’re carrying another human being obviously and um yeah and and just being a little bit more aware i guess of you know how you how you stand and how you sit because you’ve got that extra weight there or that that other kind of person to look after obviously the whole time isn’t it yeah but that’s funny that you have the same experience that’s good news that’s good news yeah for the next pregnancy maybe for the next pregnancy yes exactly and and yeah i had two obviously or not twins but i had two pregnancies and um it was pretty much the same just the second one i can tell you i was a lot more tired yeah yes and i think that’s uh mainly because i had a toddler already yeah i think so i can imagine if you have to take care of the toddler and then you’re pregnant again yes yeah exactly and then with the second one obviously um you have less time to to look after yourself and you know i had less time to do my yoga but you know that’s when you you really appreciate how important it is and how important i think as well not only during pregnancy but then especially afterwards when you’re kind of recovering so important to to take that time and i know it’s so difficult um but practice this this self-care obviously during that time when you’re pretty much there to nurture someone else all the time isn’t it definitely and then it’s just you know even if you have just 10 minutes for yourself it’s like heaven and really appreciate the time if you use it for meditation or for yoga yeah yes yeah exactly and i bet your little one is joining in as well and you’re in your yoga practice so yeah now she’s actually starting she’s really interested and she’s always like what’s mommy doing there and and i i remember this time obviously mommy mommy on the floor is always great [Laughter] because then she’s a bit closer and you can they can start if they crawling obviously they they start to crawl on top of you and stuff looking forward to that when she’s really like walking and yes yeah exactly so um before we talk about the the kind of postnatal i do want to talk about postnatal period a little bit more um tell us the big part the give giving birth part um was it kind of what what you expected were there again did did scoliosis come up in any way um during that time or was that kind of forgotten about by anyone in a hospital or um anyone who was involved in the helping you there yeah it was um i think 32nd week of my preg pregnancy and she still hadn’t turned right oh no she she had turned but then she turned back okay she changed her mind her head so um and then the doctor said like pregnancy continued and then i was i think in week 36 and then they said okay if she hadn’t her until now in the first pregnancy it’s really unlikely that she turns again so you have to be prepared um for a c-section right and i said i don’t want to have a c-section so i’m gonna try to give birth the natural way and i was really lucky because we have a hospital here close by and they’re specialized on how do you say that in english like becky and um i don’t know giving birth but turning turning the baby during the birth is stopped or no no no um not like they try to turn her like from the outside there’s a technique but that didn’t work either right okay but they even like they’re specialized on like women giving birth natural birth not with a head first but let’s say with a bum fast feet bouncers yeah actually with the bone first and um i did a lot of meditation practice during pregnancy this hypno birthing [Music] and then sometimes during meditation i was thinking okay maybe um she doesn’t have the space due to my scoliosis to turn again that was one of my thoughts like maybe there’s something because all the organs and everything’s a bit different so maybe she just doesn’t have the space anymore or maybe that’s it it’s like nature is doing it this way because this is the better way to do it for my body yeah um so i really try to trust my body and trust nature that this is the right way um and of course i had days where i was a bit scared where was um doubting if it’s possible to do it this way or if i should just sign up for a c-section like scheduled birth but yeah i decided to to try it the natural way and it worked out pretty well it did so you were you were saying they were recommending a c-section um you said no and then that was in a different hospital like they said okay now like you have to have a c-section and then i researched on the internet and i found the other hospital and they say okay we’re specialized and you don’t have to have a c-section if everything is right if like the um proportions of the head of the baby they check always before birth and if everything’s right and then they say okay you can try like yeah and if it doesn’t work you can still have a c-section yes that is that is always there isn’t it um so breach is what is what it’s called so i remember now okay um yes exactly so you just went into into labor the normal way um was it i would imagine it was still not an easy breezy burst because obviously there you know the there was a little bit of maneuvering to do um but everything was fine in the end wasn’t it yeah it was and it actually was um a really good experience it was um i imagined it to be a lot more painful and yeah i heard a lot of stories especially if it’s that way that it’s a lot more like a lot harder than the normal way but i experienced it as a really like powerful and um yeah really really intense thing yeah yes absolutely i yeah i i have the same same experience with that i mean i kind of went through a phase of um especially when i so i also did hypno birthing wow cool um but i i and that was really useful because actually i didn’t trust my body and that was mainly from the experience with scoliosis so i have this in my mind that if my body created this scoliosis you know obviously there’s something wrong there and maybe that means that you know things are not great for for the baby either so that’s kind of how uh what i had in in in my in my head and then just this whole so in hypno building for for anyone who doesn’t know what it is and or what it entails you do a lot of there’s a lot of um affirmations that you work with and like it’s almost like you’re brainwashing yourself basically isn’t it it is yeah in a positive way in a completely positive way obviously and um and then going through that experience of giving birth so first of all growing a human being and then giving birth successfully i found that just as you say i found that so um empowering and really really powerful just as as a whole like a like trusting my body trusting myself again and this whole kind of um connection to myself even though it’s about somebody else but i kind of felt like it brought me closer to myself i don’t know if that makes sense yeah to me it definitely does because that when you say before that you don’t really trust your body i i’ve had that so many years that i said okay something’s wrong with me like because of my scoliosis and then your body is capable of giving birth and it’s like okay it must be right like yes my body’s okay and i’m okay and yeah it was a really as you said really empowering yes exactly and then and one of the other things also my um so just going back about the so a lot of people as i said asking um what about you know they might be in their early 20s and thinking about having children later on in life and they think about how this the condition might um affect them and one of the things that my teacher always said was that you know obviously things changed during that during that time like your your body changes but it doesn’t happen overnight it’s nine months of preparing your body basically and you know growing growing that space for for your baby so it’s it’s not just something that happens like this but the body has a lot of time to adjust and and i believe you know the body is so intelligent and clever i mean already thinking about scoliosis how amazing is it that you you might have a scoliosis but you’re not walking around like this but your body has found a way to balance itself out you know and still make you function completely um bend doesn’t mean weak at all um you know there’s there’s lots of examples obviously and um and athletes that have scoliosis and still like performance wise are amazing and you know they’re not at all kind of hindered by the the scoliosis um yeah so i do think that yeah that whole thing that whole package of to to trust yourself is such an important important part of it and it’s almost like we can talk about it and i think it helps a lot of people to talk about it um because i wish i had had people like talking more about it and talking about their experience with with pregnancy and birth because it’s always it’s always something else if it’s you know as you say you might get some different opinions from your doctors but they might not have scoliosis probably not and um you know you want and it’s the same in hypno building isn’t it you want positive stories right yeah you don’t want the negative stories they’re not they’re not helpful at all no during pregnancy sometimes because there’s a lot of negative stories about if your child is like the wrong way in your belly and then after a while just said if someone started telling a negative story i said sorry i just don’t want to hear it like i really i don’t it’s all going to be okay yes because if you hear a lot of negative stories of course your mind kind of gets in this negative mood as well yeah yeah absolutely yeah and that’s not helpful um good let me just have a quick look at the chat here so sheila is saying she says hi i’m in my 30s and i want to have another baby and just been diagnosed with the recolumbus scoliosis and i suffered so much with my back pain for such a long time i am concerned um with pregnancy she’s also saying yes it really helps sharing in in the community do you have any any uh tips for for sheila so um she’s in her 30s she’s got she’s got significant scoliosis she is in pain and this is her second baby well as we said i don’t really think that the pregnancy is the problem because you said it as well you didn’t really have a lot of pain during the pregnancy what i experienced now like post-natal is the carrying around that’s sometimes that can be a problem because um if you carry the baby always like on your hip or always on one side now i really noticed that i have um a little pain like here on the side and i go to physiotherapy but it wouldn’t like stop me from having another having another baby no i had someone else in my class um asking this the other day and and she’s got a little one who’s he must be about the same age i think as yours and she was saying about um always carrying the baby on on on the left side and on the left hip basically and if if that can make things worse and i said look first of all you’re not going to be carrying your baby for a lot of years so this is a temporary you know thing obviously and um it’s just practical if you’re right-handed right you are going to be carrying your baby on your left hip i mean try and do it the other way around i never managed to for me it would be actually better to keep her on my right yes but then i would have to do everything with the left hand like forget it yeah yeah exactly exactly it’s just not um it’s just not practical and maybe that’s not really the time to to overanalyze what is going on i think what is helpful is obviously to to to do the yoga and um to kind of help you reset and go to see your physio and cairo practice and and whoever can help um but it’s really a time you’ve got so much going on isn’t it i mean you’re keeping a little human being alive um and taking care of yourself so yeah there is there is a lot going on so um is there anything what does your yoga practice look like now at the moment in this time where your little one is still she’s still small she’s still um eight months old i really try to get my routine back that’s my goal for now because before like even in pregnancy i really had the routine to do it every day but if you get out of this routine for me at least it’s always hard to get back in and now that i don’t really have a lot of time for myself i really try to like when she’s asleep sometimes as i said it’s just for 10 minutes just for 15 minutes because of course there’s like other stuff going on that you have to do but now that’s my goal the first time when she sleeps in the day first thing i do is go on my yoga mat no matter what like no matter how the whole household looks no matter what else is on my mind and as soon as i get on the mat everything else is forgotten and everything else for this time that i’m on the mat and this is my practice it doesn’t even have to be this like crazy practice even being there and being still and yeah doing a little bit of like exercise for my back that is what’s really good for me right now yes yeah exactly just like gentle movement to to reset isn’t it but yeah sometimes it’s just lying on the floor and it might just be breathing and just connecting with with yourself again isn’t it good so hope so i hope sheila that um and i don’t know if you were there from the beginning as well so sheila you might want to listen to what we were saying and about the the experiences obviously during um during pregnancy i think um it’s a great time to especially well it’s the second one for you sheila so i hope you you’re getting a little bit of help from your from your family but take that time to to look after yourself obviously and um yeah if you look after yourself you’re also looking after your your child so it’s not selfish to look after yourself and you know i think that’s that’s really important um sometimes mothers forget this and um there’s so much especially well i’m now my my children are a bit older they’re six and eight so they they still need me quite a lot but then i know as well if i look after myself i can be a better mother at the end of the day you know and i’m not turning into a shouty dragon uh good so sumiya i don’t know if i’m saying your your name right she’s uh 24 she’s got scoliosis she’s saying she’s very tired have you ever had this um i don’t know i’m trying to look back it’s definitely yeah is it was there a period of time um when you not not during pregnancy where but where maybe your the back pain made you made you tired or do you have any suggestions what you could do um tired i don’t really have the feeling that i was like tired because of my scoliosis or because of the back pain more maybe not like not focused or maybe not being able to concentrate because the pain kind of takes everything um yeah rest do a little bit of gentle movement which is possible for your back right now because of course if you have a lot of pain maybe you can’t do um yeah like a lot of practice but maybe just rest and do yourself some good things to your body yes yeah absolutely i think that sometimes um so i teach restorative yoga as well and and sometimes this is like the the revelation to people they say oh i’m always so tired and i don’t have any energy and then i usually say have you tried resting a little bit more like what no why why time for this i don’t have time to rest [Laughter] good so tatiana’s is is here um good morning thank you for the live chat she will watch later good you can you can catch it up you can catch up later tatiana um good yes so sheila i think she missed the beginning so yeah make sure you you you listen to the beginning as well i think you will find it really beneficial and hopefully really helpful good so um any if you know if someone like like sheila or maybe someone who’s having their their first child any general tips like practical tips maybe that that you can you can give us for um mindset or for the yoga practice anything you can you can share with us yeah for the pregnancy i would say really as i said try to stay in your routine even if it’s just 10 15 minutes per day maybe that’s even better than saying okay now i’m going to do one hour every day because you might not be able to do that but 10 15 minutes you have every day and that’s the important thing i think that you really continuously do it every day and get a lot of rest be good to yourself and yeah i think that’s that would be my suggestions lovely thank you yes and there are um so for anyone he he who wants a little bit so obviously anna and shared her experience i’ve i’ve shared my experiences um if you if anyone wants to join the the facebook group group the yoga for scoliosis community there are people of all ages in there um which can sometimes be really useful when you are going through a certain period in your life and you know for me this will be eventually approaching menopause so i’ll be asking you know other people if it’s it might be people uh younger ones obviously teenagers and then people that are you know have gone through pregnancies so it’s really great to be able to connect with others i think that have gone through it and you will find people that have have spinal fusion um you know that have big harrington rods and still have managed to give birth naturally and without any problems so i think um that’s why i think it’s so important that that you’re here today and that you’re sharing what what you have experienced because um it will be helpful to to so many people thank you so much and i think what you said the community is so amazing like on instagram and i think that’s really helpful that you can listen to other stories and share yes absolutely and and that’s just something that um has become so much easier now with um um yeah being being able to connect to others because sometimes you think um there aren’t that many people that have scoliosis and nobody understands really what what i’m going through but it’s probably a lot more people than you think um that that are going through it so let me just have a last quick look at the chat um so tiara was was asking what’s uh what degree of scoliosis you’ve got i’ve got around 40 degrees around 40 degrees good so sumiya is saying thank you thank you ladies you’re welcome you’re welcome and uh she is saying she suffer from lower back pain so you might want to have a look at some of my um videos as well sumiya so i’ve got a whole playlist of yoga for scoliosis practice videos it’s a great place to start um anna are you teaching at the moment sometimes like not that much but i do some personal yoga right now and yeah yeah great and yeah obviously still on maternity leave so we’re we’re giving you some time but then obviously anna is also teaching back care and yoga for scoliosis so how can people get in touch with you if they’ve got any questions maybe or if they want to connect with you right now the best way is instagram just send me a message on instagram i will respond to your messages and i’m working on my website actually so um it’s gonna be hopefully it’s gonna be online in like two three months so then yeah you find all the infos about that on my instagram excellent all right so thank you so much it was lovely to talk to you thanks a lot and stay in touch

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