7 Reasons to Practice Prenatal Yoga

The Prenatal Yoga Truth: Bursting The Facts

Pregnancy is a journey of change that is both inspiring and beautiful, reshaping your body, the world around you, and most importantly, your heart, which is filled with love and care for the life that is unfolding. Perhaps it is common to encounter a wave of physical discomfort and waves of emotions. If you are also experiencing sleepless nights with back pain and anxiety, then you are not alone in this journey. These changes can sometimes be a challenging path, but what matters most is learning to accept them with love, care, and kindness towards yourself, which are amazing characteristics of amazing motherhood. 

According to The Times of India [2022] reports, a survey was done for the coming yoga day, which showed 85% of women agreed that yoga is beneficial during pregnancy and after childbirth. But only 7% of the women practised prenatal yoga.

Ever thought about why this happens? It’s a common misunderstanding that practicing yoga during pregnancy is not safe. However, it’s important to remember that with proper guidance and doing safe modifications according to the weeks of pregnancy, the benefits of prenatal yoga are safe.

More than just stretching, prenatal yoga provides an excellent toolkit during your pregnancy. Even the growing research and healthcare providers say it’s one of the effective ways to nurture yourself and your newborn child.

In this guide, we will explore together the benefits of incorporating yoga during pregnancy.

7 Reasons to Practice Prenatal Yoga

1. Builds Stamina and Flexibility

The body of a woman goes through an incredible change during pregnancy. As the newborn child grows inside the mother’s womb, an additional weight is added, causing extra strain and discomfort in the lower back, hip area, and legs. During these challenging times, prenatal yoga helps improve flexibility and strengthen the muscle groups, allowing every woman to move comfortably.

Beyond strength and flexibility, prenatal yoga helps improve energy, which is important as the body works harder with each passing weekday.

A slow-flow pattern that combines breathing with movement improves blood circulation and helps improve energy so that they can be active throughout the day, supporting both mental and physical health.

2. Reduces Stress and Anxiety

Due to hormonal changes, pregnancy often brings a rollercoaster of emotions to most women. These emotional fluctuations, such as stress and worry, are natural, but they can be very challenging to handle at times.

Prenatal yoga provides an effective and gentle way to balance these emotions, providing both mental and physical relief.

Meditation and mindfulness, as well as breathing techniques like pranayama and anulom vilom, calm the nervous system and slow the heart rate while relieving tension.

3. Improves Sleep Quality

Inability to fall asleep is a common challenge during pregnancy. As the body changes every week of the passing months due to back pain, swelling, and frequent urination, it can disturb your sleep cycle. Gentle stretching helps relieve those tight muscles that interfere with sleep. Some yoga poses, such as the supported child’s pose, cat-cow pose, and legs-up-the-wall pose, can help you achieve a deeper sleep.

For training the mind to let go of stress, you can also practise meditation and breathing techniques for a few minutes, which helps calm the mind.

Also Read – 5 Best Meditation Exercises (Techniques) for Beginners

4. Prepares the Body For Labour and Delivery

There are many wonderful benefits of prenatal yoga, but one of the greatest is how it prepares both body and mind for the challenge of childbirth. Birth is hard work: it’s a physical endurance, flexibility, and strength, but it’s also an emotional marathon, often involving feelings of fear and anxiety. Expectant mothers face a range of physical and emotional discomforts as their bodies prepare to bring new life into the world.

Greater flexibility in the hips, spine, and pelvis helps facilitate a more comfortable pregnancy. Yoga poses that increase flexibility include the sitting side stretch, the squat pose, and the bridge pose. Controlled breathing techniques, such as anulom vilom and ujjai pranayama, teach the mind to remain calm, maintain the nervous system, and mitigate the intensity of contractions when they do occur.

5. Creating a Loving Connection With Your Newborn Child

Prenatal yoga is not just about preparing the body for the delivery of the child, but it’s also about how you cultivate a deep connection bond. Through mindful awareness, gentle yoga poses can help mothers tune into their bodies. Yoga poses like the butterfly pose with hands on the belly or the reclined bound pose with support open up the hips, allowing the woman to focus on their child’s presence.

6. Improves Mood and Emotional Well-Being

Prenatal yoga combines gentle movement, such as stretching and breathing, to create a peaceful effect on the mind. Together, these elements reduce overall tension, which naturally lifts your mood and promotes relaxation.

Some of the yoga poses are the standing side stretch, which opens up the lungs, encouraging you to take deeper breaths. Practising yoga for 10 to 15 minutes can help you manage the emotional ups and downs of pregnancy with greater ease.

7. Relieves Common Pregnancy Discomforts

During pregnancy, discomforts like having digestive issues and swollen ankles are common problems. To find relief, practise some yoga postures such as low lunges and legs up the wall, which can help improve circulation and boost digestion.

Safety Tips for Practising Prenatal Yoga

• Although prenatal yoga is generally safe, it is always recommended to consider some safety tips before practising prenatal yoga so that both mother and child remain healthy.
• During pregnancy, certain poses that involve deep twists and inversions should be performed carefully or avoided altogether because they may increase the discomfort and unnecessary pressure on the belly area.
•  Instead, try to focus on gentle movement or stop whenever you feel any pain in your body.
• It is advisable to practise under the guidance of a prenatal yoga teacher, who can adjust poses according to your comfort level and help you learn proper alignment.
• Prenatal yoga is about taking care of your mind and body, rather than striving for perfection.

Prenatal Yoga, Diet, and Lifestyle for a Healthy Pregnancy

• A healthy pregnancy is not only about doing yoga postures carefully, but it’s also about eating the proper food, which is one of the smartest choices that you can give to your child.
• Foods that are high in iron, calcium, and omega-3 fatty acids help in the overall health of both mother and child. Include daily leafy vegetables and seasonal fruits in your diet to maintain a good energy level during the day.
• Always stay hydrated to reduce swelling in the body. Drink herbal teas, such as ginger tea, with your doctor’s approval.
• Try to avoid caffeine as well as foods that are oily and heavily fried.

Conclusion

We all know how pregnancy is a beautiful experience, taking you on the journey to motherhood. Each moment should be embraced with love and gentle care. By practising prenatal yoga, you give yourself the precious gift that balances your body and helps calm your mind. Whether you’re becoming a mother for the first time or second, prenatal yoga helps you step into the world of motherhood with confidence and grace.

If you are willing to experience a deeper understanding of the benefits of prenatal yoga, then join Rishikul Yogshala in Kerala, an 85-hour prenatal yoga teacher training course where experts help you in every step. Surrounded by healing locations in Kerala, this training course provides the right tools to support you and offers an opportunity to share stories with other women about their pregnancy journeys.