When Pain Becomes a Teacher – My Journey With SPD and Why I Teach the Way I Do

Mar 21

During my first pregnancy, I had been practicing yoga for many years. I believed it would help me have a smoother pregnancy and birth. But despite all of my experience, I found myself in so much pain. The kind of pain that stops you in your tracks just trying to walk to the kitchen. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was dealing with Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction (SPD)—a condition that affects about one-third of pregnant people and is often misunderstood or dismissed (Owens, Pearson, & Mason, 2002).

pregnant woman due date — For me, it was debilitating. And it didn't just affect me—it affected my birth.

Because of the instability in my pelvis, my baby wasn’t able to get into an ideal position. Instead of being aligned with my birth canal, his head was pointed toward my hip. He got stuck. My body was doing everything it could to help him out, but the muscular imbalances and joint misalignment meant that he couldn’t move down without assistance. That birth was hard—physically and emotionally.

woman holding her newborn — I realized afterward that *so much of it could have been different* if I had known how to support my pelvis. If I had known how to calm and stabilize the muscles that were working overtime just to hold my body together. If someone had told me that yoga, done intentionally, could have helped.

I dove into research. I humbly re-examined my practice, my teaching, and my understanding of anatomy and birth. I studied pelvic floor rehabilitation, prenatal biomechanics, and birth positioning. I stopped chasing the “right” poses and started asking better questions:

How do we teach movement that stabilizes the pelvis—not strains it?
How do we support optimal fetal positioning through muscle balance and mobility?
How can yoga help reduce the risk of complications like diastasis recti, prolapse, or tearing?
How do we teach people to listen to their bodies instead of pushing past pain?

These are the questions that shaped the method I teach today.

Read Part 2

Ready to dive deeper into this kind of healing and functional movement?

Join me for my upcoming Core + Pelvic Floor Workshop where I share practical, powerful tools to help stabilize your pelvis, support your core, and reduce symptoms of SPD, diastasis recti, and pelvic floor dysfunction.

✨ A stronger, more supported pregnancy begins here. Reserve your spot today!

References

Owens, K., Pearson, A., & Mason, G. (2002). Symphysis pubis dysfunction—a cause of significant obstetric morbidity. European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, 105(2), 143–146.