I've had several singer friends who have had babies, and their experiences have all been similar. They actually find that during the second trimester, their singing seems to improve - something about the additional "support" caused by the growing fetus? - but that after the delivery, they have had to work for 6-12 months to regain the necessary tautness in the pubo-coccyxial musculature. In the case of one friend, who had an epesiotomy, it took her even longer, and indeed she says she feels she has never completely regained either the sensory awareness or sense of support that she had before the birth. Another friend had a C-section, and also felt a little "nervous" about working much on her vocal technique for several months - just as she felt a bit "nervous" about doing other things that caused "twinges" in her scars. Finally, I have heard that women who have lots of children - and especially those who have repeated C-sections - sometimes never regain the support from those muscles; Montserrat Caballe actually speaks of having had to develop a whole new approach to breathing and support after having had multiple C-section deliveries; for her, everything below the waist became pretty much non-functional, in terms of singing, and she managed to compensate by developing extremely good diaphragmatic breathing and intercostal support.
Karen Mercedes http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html ________________________________ I want to know God's thoughts... the rest are details. - Albert Einstein
|
| |