Surya Namaskar After Giving Birth (When to Start Doing it Again and Why)

Motherhood brings significant changes in a woman’s life, the most common being not finding any time for themselves.

Yoga can play an important role through this transition by bringing more balance and creating space for self-care.

Surya Namaskar or Sun Salutation is an essential part of an established yoga practice.

New mothers, whether practicing yogis or new to yoga, have much to gain from incorporating this sequence in their post-delivery asana practice.

In this article, we talk about when to start Surya Namaskar if you have recently given birth, including if you had a C-section or if you are breastfeeding, the benefits of Surya Namaskar, and how effective it is to reduce post-delivery fat.

Let’s jump right in!

When to start Surya Namaskar after delivery?

Generally, a woman can start practicing Surya Namaskar 6-8 weeks after delivery. A good way to go about this could be to initially start with simple postures that are more supportive for your body like: cat cow, chair pose, plank, and triangle pose until you feel ready to progress to the sequence of Surya Namaskar. It is recommended to consult a doctor before starting a yoga practice after giving birth.

Even with Surya Namaskar, if you just gave birth, it is good to take it slow.

These are modifications that you can make to the sequence when you are resuming your practice after delivery.

Avoid dynamic movements like jumping back or forward. Creating a gentle flow is safer in the beginning and will prevent you from feeling energetically depleted.
Replace Chaturanga with knees-chest-chin
Replace Upward Facing Dog with Cobra pose

Remember to breathe deeply throughout the sequence.

If you are wondering how Surya Namaskar can help you after your delivery, below are all of its benefits…

Benefits of Surya Namaskar after delivery

A complete and sufficient practice, Surya Namaskar can be healing, strengthening, calming, and revitalizing.

Here are some benefits of Surya Namaskar after delivery:

1. Engages and strengthens the whole body

After the resting and healing period, once you begin to feel that you are ready to work on your strength, Surya Namaskar is an effective way to rebuild your core muscles, regain strength, and reduce the feeling of fatigue.

It is also helpful to prevent muscle soreness that can come from carrying the baby around or bending and lifting.

2. Helps restore hormonal balance

Right after delivery, there is a sudden change in hormonal levels that can continue for at least a few months post-delivery.

Surya Namaskar helps harmonize the endocrine system and restore the body’s hormonal balance.

It stimulates the thyroid, adrenal, and pituitary glands, along with the ovaries, and also helps with breastfeeding.

3. Helps reduce symptoms of postpartum depression

Surya Namaskar can help reduce the ‘baby blues’ along with the more serious mood disorder known as postpartum depression.

It helps reduce stress and anxiety, gain confidence, boost mood, and induces a feeling of positivity.

4. Helps stabilize the core

The core of the body experiences massive changes during pregnancy and at the time of delivery.

These changes can affect the balance of the core, which is the area between the pelvic floor and the top of the ribs.

Surya Namaskar helps to bring the different parts of the core in harmony by restoring the abdominal muscles and connective tissues.

5. Helps recover your body posture

Pregnancy can lead to back pain, because of the weight that is being carried around in the front portion of the body and can also distort posture.

Regular practice of Surya Namaskar, which includes mountain pose, forward bends, and backward bending, can help you reduce back pain and recover a good body posture by releasing tension from the neck and the shoulders.

Can I do Surya Namaskar while breastfeeding?

There are tangible benefits of doing Surya Namaskar during the period when you are breastfeeding.

The sequence is effective in bringing hormonal balance which helps with the production of breast milk, helps the body feel more energetic, and relieves the back and neck pain that may arise as a result of breastfeeding.

While the best time to practice Surya Namaskar would be early in the morning and on an empty stomach, if you are still nursing and short of time, you can break your yoga practice into smaller pieces and spread them through the day.

Make sure you leave a gap of 3-4 hours before/after a full meal, or at least 30 minutes before/after if you have eaten something light.

When can I start Surya Namaskar after a C-section?

While a yoga practice can be resumed after 6 weeks of a C-section, for a full-fledged practice of Surya Namaskar, it is advised to wait for at least 3 months.

Start with 2-3 repetitions of Surya Namaskar and gradually add to it. It is important to be aware of your body and its readiness to stretch and hold poses. Avoid anything that creates pain or feels depleting.

If you just had a C-section, you can initially avoid the Warrior poses, upward-facing dogs, and Chaturangas, in your Surya Namaskar sequence.

Feel free to modify the sequence to suit your needs and create a Surya Namaskar sequence that feels easier for the body and takes up less energy.

Here are some tips…

Surya Namaskar modifications if you had a C-section

Rather than making it abrupt or too energetic, let one pose gently flow into the other.
Avoid jumping back and forth during transitions.
When you transition to downward facing dog, rather than lifting all your weight up, use your knees for support.
If there is an ache in the breasts and it makes coming into cobra inaccessible, you can replace it with a child’s pose or half plank.
Avoid upward facing dogs at the beginning until you feel comfortable completing the entire sequence.

Benefits of Surya Namaskar after C-section

The body can take more time to heal after a C-section compared to a normal delivery.

Surya Namaskar can be very helpful for post-delivery recovery if practiced correctly. Here are the benefits of Surya Namaskar after a C-section:

1. Helps with strengthening the pelvic area

A C-section can lead to discomfort, pain, and problems with the organs in the pelvic area.

Surya Namaskar is a complete sequence that strengthens the pelvic floor, tightens the muscles in the area, and strengthens the internal organs.

Always listen to the cues of the body and only stretch as much as it feels comfortable.

2. Helps overcome the trauma of a difficult delivery

More than anything else, Surya Namaskar helps rebuild confidence in yourself.

This sequence works not only on the physical body but also on the mental and emotional body.

Having a C-section can be a frightening experience and can leave one mentally and emotionally exhausted.

Surya Namaskar, with its backward bends, helps regain the sense of self, and with its forward bends, helps surrender to the experience of motherhood.

Is Surya Namaskar effective to reduce tummy fat after C-section?

Fast-paced Surya Namaskars can help shed the extra pounds accumulated in the tummy after a C-section. With a regular practice of 3- 4 times a week you can see results within a couple of months if balanced with a healthy diet. You can start with 2–5 rounds and go up to 20 rounds as you become stronger.

It helps to remember though, that more than losing weight, the practice of Surya Namaskar can help you with feeling good about your body, strengthening it, and restoring its balance.

The weight you lose is simply an added benefit.

The takeaway

Surya Namaskar can help you learn to love yourself again, be calm amidst the turbulence of the experience of delivery and post-delivery, and find gratitude for the gift of motherhood.

It is important to remember that every birth is unique and there is no standard ‘recommended’ practice.

While on the mat, respecting your body and not putting pressure on it to return to your old practice performance, are ways to show love and kindness towards yourself.

Here is a poignant and inspiring experience of a yogi and her postpartum yoga practice.

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