No one can really prepare a mama for the stuff that comes after the baby's delivery. And I don't mean the up-at-all-hours, leaky-boob, colic-child, colic-Daddy, looky-loo-in-law, in-love-with-the-little-boo stuff. I mean, the jelly-belly, lead-balloon-bosom, stretch-marked stuff. I mean the stuff that you cry over or silently chide yourself about, that you pray will melt away in the 45 minutes of good sleep you get each night.
All this stuff is why I am a proponent of mommy-and-me classes that kick in when the baby has adjusted to light outside of the womb and when mothers are feeling ready to attempt packing a diaper bag, loading up the infant and heading into an outside world of their own. The classes, designed to start slowly and work up to a pace that has a bit of challenge but still accommodates parents and their newborns, come in yoga, Pilates, stroller walking and many other varieties. My own mama-baby yoga class helped me re-learn how to flex my stretched-out abs while smothering my babbling baby boy in kisses, all while in Downward Facing Dog or the much-needed reminder of Warrior pose. I know lots of mothers who have given lots of kisses in similar classes, who've been just as happy to get out the door with their newborn as to give their bodies a little workout.
For Canadian new mothers in nineteen cities, salsa classes are a way to get back that good-body feeling while their babies are along for the ride. Through the franchise Salsa Babies, moms and babies secured in slings learn moves to Latin dances over the eight-week course. Jennifer Torres, the 35-year-old dancer and founder of Salsa Babies, assures that the dance moves are conducive to carrying a baby and that most relax during the class and many fall asleep as their moms get a workout in.
While I'm not ready to have another baby right now, nor am I that interested in strapping my 24-pound toddler in for an hour of cha-cha-chaing, I love that Torres' focus goes beyond fitness for the dancing mamas when she says, "[Salsa has] a certain element of sexiness. It's nice to see [mothers] reawaken that and start to feel confident again."
For all the good of cardio and a little sweat and muscle-building, I think that confidence, that sexiness, that welcome feeling of power is probably the best way to feel yourself again, even in the post-baby body, even that early on.
