Updated May 04, 2014.

When I heard that Gail Tully of Spinning Babies and Sarah Longacre of Blooma Yoga had made a video that combined tips for everyday mobility and yoga to help encourage babies into a better position for birth, I was thrilled. This video, Daily Essentials: Activities for pregnancy comfort and easier birth, doesn’t disappoint. In fact, it’s one of the best prenatal yoga, daily living guides I’ve seen for pregnant women.

There is such a need for this information. The goal is to ideally help your baby be in the best position for birth possible. The current way that our society sits, walks, rests, and moves does not encourage babies to be in optimal positions, but rather encourages them to be in less optimal positions, such as posterior. (This means that the baby’s spine is against the mother’s spine, which can cause more pain and make labor longer and harder.)

The beginning is a section on daily activities. This is a series of stretches and exercises that are designed to get your body ready for labor. It is not really a yoga program, but does incorporate the movements of yoga. The intention is that by keeping these basics in mind, you will be better able to deal with the discomforts of pregnancy and labor.

The section in the middle of the video is about how to move around in your daily life. Gail and Sarah show you how to do many things you don’t even think about from how to get in and out of your car to how best to sit on the couch.

They also go over the use of a birth ball for everyday use.

One thing that every pregnant woman will be attracted to is the section on how to be comfortable when you sleep. Realizing that pregnant women can have interrupted sleep from malpositioning of their bodies that cause pain, Gail and Sarah give great advice on how to sleep, where to put pillows, and even how to sneak in some belly sleeping time.

I really love how they use Sarah’s pregnant body to show the positions, but at the same time, Gail uses a pelvic model. This enables you to see what is going on on the inside. This can really help increase your understanding of why the positions and techniques they describe really work well. They also give you great tips on how to understand if you are in a position that is supportive of keeping your baby well aligned or not. These simple, but effective, descriptions are some of the best descriptions I have ever seen or heard in all of my years as a childbirth educator and doula.

The final section of this video is the yoga flow. This series of yoga moves is meant to help you stay flexible and strong. There are a lot of great tips to ensure that you are moving correctly and doing what you need to do to be safe. This is calming and feels fantastic, even though I did this not while I was pregnant. I love the little tips on how to make it work for you. The final few minutes ends with a very soothing relaxation to end your yoga flow.

This video is available for rent or purchase online. It is very reasonably priced at just under fifteen dollars. It is also immediately available for download, meaning that you do not have to wait for anything to be shipped to your home. Though a DVD will be available to those who want it.

The videography is gorgeous and calming. The background music is just enough, not too distracting or loud. This can be such a distractor to these types of videos. It’s also nice that they use Sarah as the model, she’s strong and confident and really provides a great look at how these positions and movements can be beneficial to every pregnant woman.

So, even if you think yoga isn’t something for you, I’d encourage you to look at this video, even if just for the body mechanics portions. Overall, this video is amazing and I would highly encourage every pregnant woman to watch it at least once.

See also: Free Prenatal Yoga Videos