A Rocking Chair – It’s Only Natural

Rocking your body back and forth is a natural, instinctive response to the emotions of fear, pain, grief or loneliness. While pregnant you might feel one, all, or a combination of any of those emotions. Fear that you won’t be able to handle the demands of a newborn, grief or loneliness because your family or your significant other is unable to be with you. How soothing it would be to go into your baby’s nursery and rock until you are the confident mother-to-be once more.

The physical act of rocking engages the pleasure center located in the brain causing it to release endorphins making a rocking chairthe ideal place to turn to for self comfort. Science suggests that the changes in linear motion one experiences while rocking acts as a natural stimulant to the central nervous system causing blood pressure to fall and respiration rates to slow.

Lower back pain is a pervasive condition many pregnant mothers experience. Sitting in one position for long stretches at a time can exacerbate this pain. Studies have shown that while in a rocking chair, the angle of the pelvis changes constantly as the muscles move, contract and relax. Air Force One did not leave the hangar during John F. Kennedy’s presidency without his rocking chair. Kennedy’s back pain is well documented and he had rocking chairs located wherever he went.

Most important is that beautiful new human entity now inhabiting your life. Your baby has been rocked on gentle waves for nine months. The motion of a rocking chair mimics the gentle rocking motion that your baby felt while safe in the womb. What better way to comfort your fretting baby than to gently rock until baby is calm.

Memories that are made in that rocking chair will last a lifetime, providing a sentimental heirloom to pass down from generation to generation.