Body-oriented therapy during pregnancy

Pregnancy and the birth of a baby usually become one of the happiest periods in a woman's life, however, this same stage often becomes very stressful and difficult. The mental state of a pregnant woman and a young mother is very fragile and unstable. The hormonal restructuring of the body, and the changes in the regimen and lifestyle that the child brings to the life of the woman, and possible problems with well-being play a role.

Stress and pregnancy: causes and symptoms Almost all women, even mothers with many children, experience stress in pregnancy to one degree or another. The most obvious and common symptoms of a stressful condition include:

· Sleep disorders - insomnia at night and sleepiness during the day.

· Apathy, indifference to what previously aroused interest.

· Anxiety, obsessive thoughts about imaginary troubles and dangers.

· Nervousness, irritability, or tearfulness.

· Pressure drops.

· Attacks of a rapid heartbeat, not associated with physical activity.

· Dizziness, migraine. Longing, depression, feeling of hopelessness.

· Deterioration of memory and ability to concentrate.

· Unexplained medical causes of pain. Itchy skin, exacerbation of allergic reactions.

Psychological techniques

A competent psychologist can really help deal with stress. He will not give advice and push for certain actions. The psychologist will simply help to understand your fears and concerns, learn how to respond correctly to traumatic situations and develop an effective pattern to overcome them.

Breathing techniques

With tension and anxiety, the muscles tighten, breathing becomes frequent and superficial, the brain and muscles do not receive enough oxygen, and this exacerbates stress.

Relaxation approaches

These exercises support flexibility and help restore peace of mind. If there are no contraindications, you can take a massage course - it relaxes the tense back muscles. Stress causes muscle overstrain, but the reverse is also true - muscle relaxation lowers the level of stress hormones in the blood.

Let’s take a look at a few techniques of body-oriented therapy with you. Body-oriented psychotherapy is a wonderful way to bring a expectant mother to get acquainted with her own body. Body-oriented therapy will help you relax your muscles and, accordingly, work out the accumulated negative emotions. And psychoanalysis and other psychotherapeutic techniques will save you from the negatives stored in the subconscious.

Groups of muscles that form clamps and carapace with held emotions:

1. eye area (fear);

2. mouth area: muscles of the chin, throat and neck (anger);

3. diaphragm area (rage);

Body-oriented psychotherapy - exercises to remove muscle-emotional clamps Purpose: to establish contact with the body, weaken control, work out irrational fears.

1.      To do this, sit down (or lie down) comfortably. Take a few deep breaths - relax. Switch the focus of your attention to the eye area, distract from the outside world and from pressing problems - relax even more. Select any point (spot) in front of you and focus your eyes on it. Imagine something scary, terrible, frightening you at this point and wide-wide wide eyes (as if you were very frightened of something). Repeat this several times. Focus your eyes again on the point, take a few breaths - relax.  Now, looking at the point, make circular movements with your eyes (20 times in one direction and 20 in the other).

And finally, follow the eye movements left and right, diagonally and up and down - several times.

Finish the first exercise of body-oriented therapy with deep breathing and relaxation.

2. This exercise of body-oriented psychotherapy is aimed at the liberation of the muscles of the oral spectrum - chin, throat, nape. In order to work out the accumulated emotions, having unclenched these muscles, you will have to “ape” and “bounce” a little in front of the mirror. Looking at yourself in the mirror, imagine as bright as possible that you want to cry, even to roar in your voice. Start sobbing as loudly as possible, while simulating a real cry with grimacing, curving lips, biting, loud roaring ... right up to simulating vomiting. Take a few minutes for this exercise.

3. The third exercise of body-oriented psychotherapy is aimed at relaxing and unclenching the muscles and organs of the chest, shoulders, shoulder blades and the whole arm

The most important aspect here is proper breathing, aimed at taking a deep breath and exhaling completely. To perform this exercise, breathing with your stomach is suitable, unlike regular, chest breathing. For the liberation of the muscles of the shoulder girdle, shoulder blades and hands, you need to work, for example using a pillow (or punching bag), to strike, passionate "strangulation", squeezing with your hands and tearing the subject apart with your hands.

4. Respiratory techniques.

Purpose: learn to trust the body, regulate the emotional state and reduce the intensity of pain due to breathing.

It is used in some patients with pronounced manifestations of fear, especially against the background of arterial hypertension. Fold hands with palms together at chest level, spreading fingers that are at the maximum distance from each other. The fingers are tense and facing away from the woman.

Expand the resulting figure with your fingers to the chest, starting intensive breathing with the mouth for several seconds. Stretch your arms up so that you touch the top edge of the door (if the door is very high, attach a belt to the top edge and grab it). Breathe deeply, stretching should be nice. Hold in this position for a few seconds, then lower his hands and stand like that, breathing deeply. 

Lowen's special deep diaphragmatic full breath In many ways, it looks like the complete breathing of yogis with some significant differences: it is produced through the mouth and is noisy without delaying exhalation.

Breathing is applied already at the end of the patient’s first visit, complaining of high blood pressure during pregnancy. After completing a conversation session based on body-oriented psychotherapy, a measurement of blood pressure is performed for pregnant women. At the same time, elements of behavioral therapy can be used, for example, to approach the device with your back, sticking out your stomach. If the oscillometer shows high values, then you must immediately convince the pregnant woman of the validity of the law: "The body heals itself in most cases." The essence of breathing is as follows.

It starts with extruding the remaining air. Then a breath is taken by the stomach with a protrusion of it outward (first phase); the ribs of the lower chest are expanding (second phase); the ribs of the upper chest, clavicle expand to the limit (third phase). Exhalation occurs in the opposite direction. First, the upper part of the chest decreases independently (first phase), then a forced exhalation (second phase) follows and the remaining air (third phase) is squeezed out by a press. A woman is invited to do 5-6 respiratory cycles, after which blood pressure is again measured. As a rule, there is a decrease in indicators to normal.

After all, before you teach the body to relax, to cope with the stresses that have arisen, it is necessary to understand where these stresses "live". psychological preparation for childbirth through work with the body; work with emotions and feelings, attitudes, fears and expectations with the help of special exercises and methods of body therapy (including thanatotherapy); the ability to simulate some conditions and sensations that a woman experiences in childbirth, and learn how to cope with them; the opportunity to realize and rethink some of your ideas about pregnancy and childbirth, to form the right attitude for childbirth, to let go of what bothers you and to make room in your life for a meeting with the baby; find support in order to successfully cope with your task in childbirth, to feel how much resources you have for this, and to learn how to properly manage them.

How not to fall prey to postpartum depression Postpartum depression is a fairly common occurrence, and it is not always necessary for its occurrence to have many premises. Here are a few rules that will minimize the risk of extreme stress.

Learn to be distracted

At least a couple of hours a day, devote only to yourself and what you love. Home - people are independent and will be able to take care of themselves, the priority of work is also not higher than your state of health, so learn how to please yourself.

Keep in touch Anxiety forces us to lock ourselves in and stay away from society, but it only increases stress. Communicate more often with friends and family, if you can’t see each other in person, use your phone and social networks. Remember that you are not alone, you have a large support group and there are people nearby for whom you are very important.

Do not be afraid of psychotherapists

Remember that your visit to a specialist does not automatically transfer you to the category of people with mental disabilities! On the contrary, working with a psychotherapist is a sign of a person’s maturity, responsibility and understanding that in certain situations problems are much easier and more effective to solve with the help of professionals. You’re not trying to seal a tooth yourself or make a concrete screed?

Take courses for expectant mothers

At such courses, you will not only receive answers to questions that concern you, but also receive a lot of useful information.