The term “Belly Dance” originated with Napoleon’s soldiers who were most likely the first Europeans to see the dance ritual. They labeled it “Danse du Ventre”, which is French for “Dance of the Stomach”.  Sacred dancing featured the abdomen, the source of the Goddesses’ fertility.  It is believed that belly dance was used to help pregnant women through the birth process. The mother-to-be was surrounded by concentric circles of women who danced with repeated abdominal movements while the woman gave birth. Sometimes the mother-to-be would dance with them as the movements relaxed her muscles and increased the flexibility of her hips and eased labor pains.

Belly Dancing reduces stress, increases energy and flexibility and improves strength, posture, muscle tone and coordination. It has been said that it heals and balances the body, mind and spirit all at once. Belly dancing can also burn as many calories as power-walking or riding a bike.  It’s a great way be creative and expressive.

This video provides advice on exercise and fitness. Amon Maternity encourages you to consult your physician prior to engaging in any of the activities or exercises presented on this website.

Myryka Nunya won the 2006 Bellydancer of the Universe People’s Choice & Congeniality Awards. She began her career as a showgirl at the age of 18 at Bally’s Jubilee, and quickly went on to work in shows at The Flamingo, Stratasphere, & Ceasar’s Palace in Las Vegas.  Myryka teaches pre-natal belly dance classes in Scottsdale, AZ.  More information can be found on her website www.myryka.com.

Our behold band supported Emma + baby who’s expected to make her arrival soon. It was wonderful to team up with our friends from StrollerStrides, At One Yoga and Amomi Spa in helping support mom’s in our community. Many thanks go out to Greta who provided information on her Doula services. Don’t miss Greta explain how acupressure can help relieve your morning sickness!

Amon Maternity proudly participated in and sponsored the 2nd annual Race for Maggie’s Place on Sunday, November 8th! Maggie’s Place is a community of homes that provide for pregnant women who are along or living on the streets.

Vanessa Drewlo, Director of Operations & Kristi Bell, Founder

The 9k running race represented the months of pregnancy along with a 3k stroller push and Kid’s Dash. This year A Race for Maggie’s Place had over 800 participants and more than 200 kids!

Many thanks to Boot Camp Babes who joined us at Tempe Beach Park.

We are very grateful for our Shadow Racers in Charleston, SC and Virginia Beach, VA who raced in their own town. Thank you for making this years event a wonderful success!

Whether your pregnant or not, take a peek and don’t be afraid to cat/cow. Instant back relief DELIVERED.

Watch

ALLEVIATING BACK PAIN WITH PRENATAL YOGA. The Prenatal Yoga is the first yoga center in New York City to focus on moms and moms-to-be. Over the past 7 years, over 6,000 women have come through their door to take classes and workshops. For more information or to contact The Prenatal Yoga Center please visit http://www.prenatalyogacenter.com.

Visualize our pelvic floor as a very thin, muscular tissue that has the responsibility of controlling the passage of solids, liquids, and air from our body, as well as holding up our bowel, bladder, and uterus. This can help us understand how this muscle can have some difficulty doing all it’s supposed to do as the weight and size of our uterus increases throughout pregnancy. Incontinence reaches its peak in the third trimester, when the uterus grows most rapidly. So this gives us insight into why we leak during pregnancy, but what about those of us who delivered months or years ago?  Why are we still leaking? The answer is that our pelvic floor muscles were stretched beyond their limit, damaging the muscle tissue. When this occurs, there is no guarantee that our muscles will just bounce back on their own and resume normal muscle firing and coordination. Just like after knee surgery, we have to do exercises to ensure that our quadricep muscle will fire again and resume normal strength, we should also exercise our pelvic floors after the trauma of pregnancy and delivery to get our pelvic floor to keep us continent and “supported.” Hopefully that answers the “why” and now I want to give you some direction toward a solution.

I am a mother of three and a physical therapist who feels there are a few missing links of information when it comes to dealing with symptoms of incontinence.  First of all, women need to know that they can rehabilitate and strengthen their pelvic floor because, most often, this is a muscular issue!  And second, women need to learn how to do it.  The bottom line is, you simply have to do more than Kegel exercises to strengthen your pelvic floor.

Did you know that our pelvic floor muscles not only tighten as if to stop the flow of urine, but they also elevate to give better support to our bowel, bladder, and uterus? It is this elevation of our pelvic floor that most women don’t get. In order to achieve optimal pelvic floor contraction, you have to perform both actions. Beyond these two actions of the pelvic floor, there are also several other muscles that enclose the front, back, and sides of our abdomen, what I refer to as our “abdominal basket”. These muscles work in a coordinated fashion with our pelvic floor muscles to enhance their contraction, so working your entire abdominal basket is the final key to regaining control of that “pee thing.”

Tasha Mulligan is an experienced physical therapist and athletic trainer as well as a mother of three. She has both personal and professional familiarity with the symptoms of a weakened pelvic floor, so she knows firsthand the embarrassment, confusion, fear, and frustration you may be facing. She found that good information is not easily accessible to people at large and therefore many women are willing to accept the changes occurring with their body and the restraints on their activity level. To learn more and purchase the DVD go to www.hab-it.com.

Belly Dancing reduces stress, increases energy and flexibility and improves strength, posture, muscle tone and coordination. It has been said that it heals and balances the body, mind and spirit all at once. Belly dancing can also burn as many calories as power-walking or riding a bike.  It’s a great way be creative and expressive.

This video provides advice on exercise and fitness. Amon Maternity encourages you to consult your physician prior to engaging in any of the activities or exercises presented on this website.

Myryka Nunya won the 2006 Bellydancer of the Universe People’s Choice & Congeniality Awards. She began her career as a showgirl at the age of 18 at Bally’s Jubilee, and quickly went on to work in shows at The Flamingo, Stratasphere, & Ceasar’s Palace in Las Vegas.  Myryka teaches pre-natal belly dance classes in Scottsdale, AZ.  More information can be found on her website www.myryka.com.