still dancin'

Lots of people ask me how long I think I'll be bellydancing for while I'm pregnant. Well, I've seen women bellydance til the end and even into 'overdue' time! My friend Arwyn was doing full beautiful belly rolls when she was a week overdue with her son Tristan!! So I'm going to keep it up as long as I feel I can.
Many people don't know that the origins of bellydancing is a birthing dance. Women in ancient times would gather around a birthing woman and dance the motions of bellydance to promote the baby's movement down the birth canal. Every movement of this dance was created for birth. Amazing! I'm delighted that I've been in birth training for over 7 years already!
Our birthing center has no restrictions on who can be there with you during labor, so I have asked my Luminessah to be there with us when we bring our child into the world. We already feel the deep old connection to all those women who used this dance before us. What a blessing!!
Not only does bellydancing tone up all those birthing muscles, it also relieves back pain that commonly occurs with pregnant women. Our midwife said it was probably the best exercise I would be doing for myself and the baby.

You can keep up with our troupe's happening by going to our new website:
www.luminessah.com