What Trapeze Meant to Me During Pregnancy and Beyond

Written by Momentum Aerial Trapeze Student Lynette Miller.

Lynette performs trapeze in her second trimester in this photo.

The curtains open. From my perch on the trapeze, I can see my 2 year old wiggling in her seat, loudly whispering a thousand “why” questions that turn heads in the nearby rows. “Why is it dark? Why is mama on that trapeze? Why are they going upside down? Why can’t I go on the trapeze right now?!” A few minutes later, I join her in the audience in my jeggings and crop top, after opening the show to Beastie Boys with my class. Together, we clap and cheer for the other aerialists’ stunning performances. “When can I bow, mama?” she asks loudly between songs.

At the same December aerial showcase 3 years earlier, my belly bulged under my shiny gray leotard on the stage in Prochnow auditorium. Six months pregnant, I climbed a tower of mats to mount the trapeze for the last time for over a year. I could feel my baby moving and kicking in my belly while I danced in the air, adapting the moves to fit around my growing stomach and changing body. 

Morgan was one of the first people I shared the news with after my spouse. I remember nervously staying after class, afraid I’d have to stop trapeze, drop out of the summer semester and miss the approaching flow performance. Instead, she shared excitement, stories of others who had continued training through months of pregnancy, and that she could offer adaptations for anything. She immediately made me feel welcome to stay and encouraged open communication to ensure I always felt completely safe. More than anything, I wanted this baby, and I wanted to keep her safe. 

While I had only been doing trapeze for a year at the time, for the better part of a decade partner acrobatics and then aerial had become my main form of fun, fitness, stress relief, and most importantly, where I found my community. My ob/gyn and then my midwives (one a fellow aerialist) all wholeheartedly endorsed continuing trapeze into pregnancy, as long as I felt safe and it felt good for my body. Any activity is healthier than no activity; I was taking all precautions; and keeping my spirits up was important. 

The morale boost of continuing trapeze turned out to be the most valuable aspect for me through those first 6 months. I had wanted a baby for years, but I did not anticipate the emotions I would feel as my body became unfamiliar to me, shape-shifting for more than a year through both the prenatal and postpartum experience. For each and every one of those 26 weeks of trapeze during my pregnancy, I had to rediscover my body, my shifting balance points, my waning physical strength and new ways of moving on the trapeze. I felt supported and encouraged by the whole aerial community- my trapeze classmates and fellow students and other instructors at open gyms and conditioning. I eased up the intensity through the nausea of my first trimester, then I had to learn to navigate around my expanding belly, and more challenging yet, adapt and eventually avoid moves that engaged my abs or put any pressure on my abdomen. 

Every step of the way, Morgan talked through and listened with curiosity to how my body was changing and how different movements felt on the trapeze. She worked closely with me to find adaptations to moves and routines. She introduced me to other aerialists who had previously trained while pregnant, and connected me with another pregnant trapezist who has since become one of my dearest friends. From early on, I struggled with ab separation (diastasis recti), so we worked closely to protect and reduce strain on my abs. Instead of beats and pull ups onto the trapeze, I moved to the low trapeze, and later she stacked mats to make it more accessible to me. Pullovers and front balance were quickly ruled out, but I could shift my back balance to new balance points as I grew more top heavy. 

My last performance at Prochnow was a special night. Continuing trapeze safely through two trimesters of pregnancy made me feel powerful and confident as I approached birth. Mentally and emotionally, this journey was healing and empowering for me. Past sickness and trauma earlier in life left me self conscious about my physicality and my womanhood. Training and performing on trapeze allowed me to be fully present in my body through the most profound human experience- carrying and ultimately birthing a child. Self conscious feelings about rapid weight gain morphed on the trapeze into feeling strong, capable, and beautiful. 

A baby, a pandemic, and what felt like a lifetime later, I returned to trapeze with excitement after over a year hiatus. My body felt strong, but I was still dealing with postpartum diastasis recti (ab separation). My breasts leaked warm milk into the pads in my bra while I reacquainted myself with once familiar movements on the trapeze. It felt like reuniting with an old friend, among a class of masked strangers. I rebuilt strength and learned new skills.

But, in the joy of throwing myself back into trapeze, without my careful attention, my abs separated further. Frustrated, I returned to postpartum physical therapy. With new restrictions on my movement, I once again worked closely with Morgan’s support and guidance (complementary to my PT), to rebuild and tighten my abs, developing once again new bodily awareness and improving my form to build strength and heal while savoring the joys of flying, inverting, and dancing on the trapeze. 

While my priorities have shifted in motherhood, I still return week after week to Momentum to find calm, focus, and fun amidst the hectic pace of life as a working mom. I’m continuously inspired by the people who teach and train at Momentum, the welcoming and safe culture, and the empowering of all bodies to move gracefully through the air. And that baby who trained inside me for all those months- she adores watching trapeze and dreams of the day she herself can fly (again) on the trapeze.