What is Pregnant Pauses?

Pregnant Pauses is an innovative and unusual approach to movement that alleviates your pain during pregnancy by teaching you to use and move your body in a more intelligent, effective and efficient way.
The Pregnant Pauses DVD set has over seven hours of proven instruction compiled into six different “Pauses” aimed to teach simple movement methods that ease everyday tasks.
Each “Pause” is explained step by step so you will gain the maximum benefit along with a short talk that will help you understand the thinking and theory behind each “Pause”.
Pregnant Pauses increases your energy and improves your quality of life while helping you adjust to the changes occurring through each stage of your pregnancy. By doing small, gentle movements for only 20-40 minutes a day you will be amazed at how easily you’ll be able to roll over in bed, get in and out of a chair, carry your growing baby and move more freely. It is as simple as doing slow, easy movements, at your own pace, in the comfort of your own home.
Pregnant Pauses utilizes your nervous system’s innate intelligence to bring about a new and more effective relationship between your muscular and skeletal systems. Based on years of research through wide-ranging applications, Pregnant Pauses is a direct application of the Feldenkrais Method® of Somatic Education.
Easier than Yoga, more fun than Pilates , you’ll be guided to a new understanding of how your body works and how you can move.

My Thoughts:

Luckily, I received this DVD a week before I was induced, so I was able to try it out at a time that I needed to relieve pain and discomfort from the final weeks of pregnancy.  What I loved most about this DVD is that it explained each movement/pause in a step-by-step manner, making it easy to grasp and execute.  After only 20 minutes of movement, I felt rejuvenated and energized.  Even my mood was improved, which was great, as I had been having trouble getting comfortable at night in the final weeks, so I was waking up sluggish.  And, with a 16 month old daughter at home, I needed to have energy to take care of her.  One pause that I found very beneficial was the one that dealt with the proper techniques of the Kegal exercise.  I have continued to use this pause in the weeks following my pregnancy to help strengthen those core muscles that weaken with pregnancy. Thanks to this wonderful DVD, I was able to learn better ways to breath, roll over sleep and relieve pain and discomfort associated with pregnancy.
If you are pregnant or know someone who is, you should definitely check out this DVD.  It would also make for a great baby shower gift!

Disclosure:  I was sent a copy of this DVD in order to write up an honest review.  The views above are mine and mine alone.

 

>> See original review by clicking here

As a longtime studier and practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method of movement, Alan Questel came to realize that pregnant women would best benefit from his teachings. ”They were really the ideal population to interact with about this, in that they’re carrying a new life in them and they’re at a time when their bodes are changing radically, from week to week to week,” he tells PEOPLE.

Thus, Questel created Pregnant Pauses, a video series in which he instructs expectant mothers how to master movement as they move through the different stages of pregnancy via repetitions of movement termed “pauses.”

“I was looking at very concrete ways that could help pregnant women learn to do everyday efficient things, like getting in and out of a chair, rolling over, reaching for things, carrying something,” he says. “How to help alleviate the pain that comes to them in different stages of pregnancy, how to improve their breathing, how they can have more energy.”

The program’s DVDs feature Questel demonstrating six different pauses, both by himself and with the aid of a pregnant woman so viewers can mimic the movements at home. He also provides a brief background on each movement, and the theory behind its usefulness.

“What they’ll be physically doing are very, very small, gentle movements,” he says. “They do them in a way that I direct their attention to different parts of themselves. When someone is starting to roll, I can help orient them towards the relationship with the floor, towards more what they’re doing in the center, towards what they’re doing in the arms and legs. Pauses are structured in such a way that they result in a completely different form of moving that’s much more easy, much more effective, and much more efficient.”

“It’s about thinking about your muscles differently,” adds Elizabeth Robinson, a colleague of Questel’s who is in her third trimester. “There’s something that happens when you think about engaging specific muscles, and firing them in a certain way that makes that movement more successful and less painful.”

In addition, Pregnant Pauses can also be utilized as a companion activity to prenatal workouts.

“You’re not going to be working up a sweat doing the pauses,” says Robinson. “But it complements those traditional exercises because it’s really focused on helping you figure out how your nervous system connects and on creating a relationship between your skeletal and muscular system. Once you have that knowledge, you’ll able to do any other workout more effectively.”

And unlike traditional exercise, Questel says women can use Pregnant Pauses as sparingly or as religiously as they see fit.

“Some women do it once a day; some will do it once, twice, maybe three times a week,” he says. “I recommend to do it when they’re feeling less comfortable in their body.”

– Kiran Hefa

Pregnancy is a beautiful thing. Mostly. But it’s also really, really hard on your body. You have to deal with the extra weight, the squishing of organs, sleepless nights, heartburn, and many, many more issues. It can be tough!

Now, I’m no longer pregnant, but a couple months ago, I was contacted by Pregnant Pauses and asked if I would like to try out their DVD set designed to teach you how to move in ways that would alleviate the stress and pain in your new body. Of course I was interested. The six different “Pauses” teach you how to move so that everyday tasks are easier.

You can use the DVD set as little or often as you like, but obviously the more you do, the better you feel. I wasn’t able to do the “Pauses” as often as I would have liked, but I did find them interesting, and I do think I felt the differences. I think my energy increased, and I really did find it help with my hip pain.

If you would like to try out “Pregnant Pauses” for yourself, you can check out their website, or you can win it here by leaving a comment letting me know what your least favorite part of being pregnant is!

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