3 benefits of attending a postnatal class with baby
When you become a new mum sleeping, eating and cuddling should be your top priority and not a whole lot else. However, when you’re feeling up to it, you might need to get out and about a little, to keep cabin fever at bay.
Being a new mum is intense. Feeding, changing, second-guessing yourself, worrying, with a large dollop of exhaustion can make a new mum feel a bit frustrated and sometimes even a bit trapped.
A 30 minute walk, daily, can help with this and it can also be lovely to attend a new mums group, breastfeeding group or a specialist postnatal mum and baby class. Here are 3 major benefits of attending a postnatal class like mum & baby yoga, Pilates or infant massage:
1. Providing mum and baby with a social outlet
When you’ve been in a haze of feeds, nappies and broken sleep for weeks on end and the majority of your conversations has been slurred speech or baby talk you begin to need a social outlet for yourself. A postnatal class is a great opportunity to meet other new mums ,have a chat, a moan, and a laugh. Babies love looking at other children and it’s also an opportunity for baby to see and observe other little people!
2. Help with Bonding
Sometimes the bond between mum and baby isn’t the most natural thing in the world. Sometimes mum needs a little bit of help, support and encouragement with bonding. Baby massage and mum & baby yoga are hugely beneficial in fostering the bond between mum and baby through touch, one-to-one contact, songs and play.
3. Reminding you to actually do those pelvic floor exercises
Remember that handout you got from the midwife? The one telling you to do your pelvic floor exercises? Well if you’ve totally forgotten about that the good news is classes like mum & baby yoga and mum & baby Pilates are full of gentle exercises to tone and work the pelvic floor, the core and help those abdominal muscles gently knit back in. You’ll be laughing, sneezing and trampolining without fear in no time!
If you’d like to try out a postnatal class you can drop in to our Mum & Baby Yoga on a Tuesday morning and/or Mum & Baby Pilates classes on Mondays and Thursdays. Infant massage classes are attended as a course of 6 classes – the next course starts 16th May 2016.