Prenatal yoga sounds like a healthy practice to follow during pregnancy - and it is. Here we will look at what it can do specifically to help you feel great and stay calm during the most important nine months of your life.
Read below seven important ways yoga can make a positive difference in your pregnancy.
It supports your changing body
Our bodies always change before and after childbirth. But during pregnancy the body experiences an accelerating rate of change and needs help to adjust and compensate.
Prenatal yoga practice is designed to support the changes that occur in a pregnant body by offering women healthy, safe ways to stretch their muscles and strengthen their body - especially their lower body - to facilitate increasing abdomen support process.
It strengthens important muscle groups
Prenatal yoga stimulates the body, especially the pelvic floor, the muscles of the hip and the abdominal core, in preparation for the birth process. A properly stressed muscle has the right balance between length and endurance - it's neither too loose nor too tight. Building and maintaining muscle tone during pregnancy can help minimize the pain of nine months and is crucial to restoring your body to an enhanced postnatal state.
Childbirth preparation
A top priority in prenatal yoga classes is teaching women to be able to trust that their bodies will respond to childbirth. When we are afraid, we tighten and tightening leads to a cycle of fear-tension-pain. This can sabotage a woman's efforts to stay calm during childbirth, especially if she hopes to experience childbirth with little or no medication for pain.
Promotes connection with your baby
Even going to a prenatal yoga class once (or more) each week is a gentle reminder to steal time from a busy job or home life to take care of and connect with your growing baby.
It provides relief
Prenatal yoga can be the cure for what bothers you if you suffer from common discomforts during pregnancy, such as back pain, nausea, insomnia, headaches, shortness of breath and carpal tunnel syndrome. By stretching and toning the muscles, you can help the blood to circulate throughout the body in a healthy way.
Also, deep breathing can bring oxygen to your baby and your muscles. A 2012 study from the University of Michigan found that yoga, which combines natural postures with meditation practices, can bring measurable relief to depression that can accompany the emotional journey of pregnancy.
Of course, not all symptoms will go away completely, but a multidimensional approach to yoga in both physical and emotional health can help your body get rid of the unpleasant aspects of pregnancy.
It gives you a healthier pregnancy
Unsurprisingly, research suggests that a healthy mother is more likely to give birth to a healthy baby. However, another 2012 study found that women who regularly practiced yoga during pregnancy were less likely to give birth prematurely or give birth to a low birth weight baby, which is important for a baby's health.
Encourages you to make friends
One of the biggest benefits of prenatal yoga can be participating in a community with other expectant mothers. The classroom becomes a pregnancy support group, where women connect with other women who make the same choices and lifestyle changes.
Sharing a pregnancy trip with new friends can help relieve your anxiety about impending motherhood, while at the same time relieving back pain and calming your body.
BY Dr Angel,
Aggeliki Koskeridou
Holistic Doctor – Counseling Psychotherapist
Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine
MSc Health Psychology
insta: dr_aggelikikoskeridou_official
