What books are there on this stuff?

There are probably loads of books that I'm not aware of which are available. The books I've chosen are on the holistic end, as, after opening a book in Borders to find a whole fully-illustrrated page on problems, illnnesses and issues I decided I wanted a more positive approach. Here are the ones I've found, feel free to let me know about any others you come across.

Shiatsu for Midwives by Suzanne Yates with Tricia Anderson
This book has been a real find in terms of ideas, points to work with and avoid, little meditations and visualisations to reccomend or adapt. It also shows what level of support and help you and your newborn could receive from a trained practitioner.

Magical beginnings, enchanted lives: a holistic guide to pregnancy and childbirth by Deepak Chopra
Informative and calming with clear information and lots of suggestions how to connect more depely with yourself and your baby during this magical time. Quite aspirational, don't feel you have to achieve the ideal that is painted.

Eastern Body, Western Mind (revised) Anodea Judith
Working through the chakras as a psychological model has been a long term process of over a decade for me. This book, is the best explanation I have ever found. Particularly useful at the moment, it looks at the chakras as a model of child development, overlapping many systems to show their similarities. The section on the base chakra is especially relevant. A truly outstanding work and one I think I will be referring to for the next decade both for me and for bump.

And Finally...
The Descent of the Child: Human Evolution from a new perspective by Elaine Morgan
A play in the title of Darwin's famous book 'The Descent of Man' this book considers evolution from the perspective of conception, pregnancy and child development in the womb. A fascinating book which highlights how centred around the male body and theories of male authors much of evolution has been since Wallace and Darwin's great insight into natural selection. It is a great way to refocus on how important and valuable the role of motherhood is to human existence.

Can I still practice pushing hands and weapons when I'm pregnant?

As Simon and I teach a full curriculum, this is a question I have been asked frequently by students wishing to continue their Tai Chi progress during this busy year or so. Obviously, the medical recommendation, and therefore ours, is that you should avoid contact martial arts during pregnancy (also, during breastfeeding, women sometimes find pushing hands can be tricky if they have sore breasts). However within the study of applications, pushing hands and weapons training there are many levels before full contact sparring.

Jue Shou
The study of sensing hands is a perfect study during pregnancy. It is an internal meditative exercise which heightens your ability to listen to your body and become aware of its changing alignments in a soft and yielding way. It is also ideal for work with a birth partner as it develops a deep rapport that will enable them to support you more deeply thoughout pregnancy and labour.

Tui Shou
Pushing hands in the Yang Style starts with a series of preparatory exercises starting with single circle and progressing from there. With some adaptations these are all possible throughout pregnancy until the last month or so. The key is to ensure that the partner ytou are working with understands how to work with you and the baby, that it is a cooperative practice and that you are comfortable throughout.

Weapons
I have ben practicing sabre and spear throughout the first and second trimesters and am finding it fine. My teacher, Sam Masich, is always on hand to give advice and has advised that I keep training. During the first trimester, I did find that I became tired quicker and that I needed to take frequent breaks, some days I just didn't feel like it and wanted to do more Qigong, but during the second trimester it all feels fine.

I guess that's the message overall really: do what feels right for your body and learn to trust that that is right for you and the baby. It's natural to second guess yourself and to wonder if you're getting it right. Whatever your situation in life though, Tai Chi is always a process of listening to your body, letting go and learning to trust.

So what are the benefits of Tai Chi or Qigong during pregnancy?

Any meditative practice will have benefits for pregnancy. Here are some for Tai Chi which I, my students or friends have experienced over the years:

Relaxation
Tai Chi teaches you how to be comfortable in your body through correct alignment and posture. If the skeleton lines up correctly, the muscles are in their optimum position for relaxation. Now, as anyone who's been doing this a while knows - that's easier said than done! My body had so many bad habits when I began, that I didn't really know which one to tackle first. A good teacher will help you to work out what your next steps are for your body and its peculiar little quirks.
Pregnancy could be considered a Yin state - thoughts and awareness move inward as you focus on your body and the new life growing inside you. Whereas for many women, the normal, day-to-day attention is outside on work and obligations, suddenly there is a huge new responsibility inside. Trying to balance the internal and external worlds can feel overwhelming, stressful and not how you imagined pregnancy would be. Tai Chi, Qigong, meditation and yoga all help to balance this new duality so that you and your baby can find a harmony and flow with life together.
Tai Chi can help with sleep which becomes a little harder as your belly gets in the way. Relaxation, hormone regulation, calmer thoughts all help with aiding sleep.

Non-Impact
Tai Chi can be studied as a full fighting system of kicks punches and throws. Obviously this is not recommended during pregnancy. Just about every teacher I have met from around the world have taught beginners classes which are non-impact and train you in a relaxing medative series of movements known as 'the form'.
Carpal tunnel syndrome which can crop up in the second half of pregnancy is caused by fluid retention compressing the nerves in the wrist leading to tingling and numbness in the hands and lower arms. Yoga and Tai Chi work the wrists in a low impact way which can relieve the pressure from work related activities which can exacerbate it such as keyboarding or manual work.

Posture
Tai Chi and Qigong/Chi Gung teach you how to relieve back pain by working the spinal and abdominal muscles to hold the spine in a relaxed suspended posture. This is very beneficial for pregnancy when your growing baby is bringing more and more weight to the front of your body. Without some form of posture training (Yoga and Pilates can also help) the back can be pulled out of alignment creating problems in the sacrum, pelvis and lumbar spine. Tai Chi and Qigong movements specifically treat the waist as a joint of the body (as written about in the earliest writings on Tai Chi) which strengthens your abdominal and spinal muscles, massages your internal organs and gently rocks and soothes baby (mine seems to love it, waking up afterwards and seeming to do its own baby chi form just when I'm trying to settle down afterwards!)
The postural benefits also help with the management of ligament changes throughout pregnancy by strengthening the muscles and teaching correct alignment.

Breathing
Even as early as 15 weeks I noticed that my lungs had a little bit less room to move; walking upstairs really makes this obvious. Because Tai Chi/Qigong are about breathing into the dantien (the hara in Japanese or your core, just below the belly button) my breathing rhythms are staying deep and low. Many of my friends and students have mentioned in the past how easy it is to become breathless, breathing to the dantien helps regulate the breath, and hormones in a natural way.

Relieves Nausea
Just as acupuncture has been shown to relieve nausea in pregnancy, simple tai chi exercises can do the same. From experience this seems to be for a number of possible reasons. Morning sickenss is probably due to hormonal changes as a result of pregnancy or blood sugar changes. Tai Chi and Chi Gung have been used to regulate both these imbalances as part of Traditional Chinese Medicine for centuries.

Are Tai Chi and Qigong safe for pregnancy?

As with most exercise, it is recommended that you do not start any new exercise regimes within the first 12 weeks. Aside from this, Tai Chi and Qigong are as beneficial as other exercises and often more so.

For beginners, the key is to find a knowledgeable and experienced teacher whether for Yoga, Tai Chi or Meditation, who will help you to support yourself and your growing baby in a deeply sensitive way. There are not many antenatal classes in the UK, however there are questions you could ask before joining a class:

• Is the teacher a woman who has already been pregnant and can advise you from personal experience?
• Is the teacher trained in acupuncture or shiatsu and therefore able to advise you in this way?
• Have they advised students before who you would be able to speak to?
• Are the classes focused on Tai Chi only as a martial art or is it suitable for pregnancy?

UK teachers offering antenatal classes:
www.taichiwisdom.net my classes in Brighton
www.swantaichi.co.uk/pregnancy.html classes in Stratford-upon-Avon

Intermediate students who have already been training in Tai Chi for some time can continue with Tai Chi throughout pregnancy without ill effects. In my own experience, I was tired and felt somewhat nauseous for the first 13 weeks, but found that gentle form and standing calmed my mind, emotions and stomach excellently. Although I am still training in sabre, it is for shorter periods at a time; the same with pushing hands, and without as much oomph. Obviously applications need to avoid the abdomen, should not involve impact or powerful expressions of force (fa jing). Not that I felt much like doing any of that, I was a bit busy throwing up!

Key tips to bear in mind:

• drink plenty of water
• take breaks when needed
• adapt some Qigong to seated practice
• listen to your body and follow what you feel is right. This will vary a lot from one woman to another.

Welcome

This blog will be a series of questions and answers about Tai Chi and other internal arts and how they affect/are affected by pregnancy. Many of the questions are my own or my students and the answers will come from direct experience, intuition or asking more experienced teachers. I am by no means a medical expert and I'd suggest that you check your health queries with a midwife or GP if you are in any way unsure.

I hope you enjoy following my journey and feel free to contribute queries, advice or opinions that will help other practitioners out there.