Yoga is very helpful and effective for pregnant women imparting many beneficial and therapeutic attributes to those who practise it. Practising yoga helps a woman prepare physically for childbirth apart from positively influencing her mental and emotional state and helping her get ready for a life-changing experience. Ideally it is best to start practising yoga before a woman becomes pregnant. This will help a woman become more familiar with Yoga and help her body to attune to Yoga practice before the body starts to change with the onset of pregnancy. If you are pregnant then it is important for you to discuss your decision to practise Yoga with your doctor irrespective of whether you have practised yoga before becoming pregnant.
Pre Natal Yoga (in Mumbai & Delhi)
After you get a go-ahead from your doctor, you should start the search for a qualified and experienced Yoga instructor. Remember, it is dangerous to practice prenatal yoga from unqualified and inexperienced yoga instructors and you can set yourself up for irreparable harm if you try to find yoga instructors on online classified websites like olx and quikr. If you happen to know a prenatal yoga instructor through recommendations then it’s well and good. Or else contact us at Wellintra Fitness and we will send a qualified and experienced prenatal yoga instructor to your home for regular yoga sessions to help you through a smoother pregnancy!
Physical Benefits of Prenatal Yoga
Yoga can help a woman get through a lot of physical problems with ease. Performing Yoga can help a pregnant woman relieve tiredness, nausea, acidity, leg cramps and varicose veins. Regular practise of yoga can also help a woman maintain good posture throughout her entire period of pregnancy which can help keep back pain at bay. A prenatal yoga teacher can also teach her proper breathing and relaxation techniques that she can use during labor to help her cope with any pain that she might experience.
Emotional Benefits of Prenatal Yoga
Prenatal Yoga can also help a woman deal with mental and emotional stress and turmoil that she may experience as a regular phenomenon during pregnancy and childbirth. Yoga can improve her concentration powers which will ultimately help her through the process of pregnancy as well as during labour. Yoga can also help to alleviate mood swings as well as anxiety attacks and fears and phobias about childbirth. By increasing your awareness of your body, yoga can also increase the confidence you have in your ability to give birth. You could also realize that in the process of doing yoga you create a deeper connection with your unborn baby through meditation.
Poses to Avoid During Pregnancy
Avoid Doing Poses on Your Back
Post the first trimester of your pregnancy you should generally avoid doing poses that require you to lie flat on your back for extended periods of time. By lying on your back, the weight of the fetus can restrict the flow of blood in the lower body.
No Pressure on Abdomen
When a woman is pregnant, she must avoid doing poses that require her to lie on her belly or other poses that puts stress and pressure on the abdomen such as forward bends and twists. Though one can modify forward bends and twists to make them safe for pregnancy, one must only perform such poses if one is an advanced yoga practitioner or under the watchful eyes of a personal yoga trainer.
Listen to Your Body
If you begin to feel any strain or discomfort while doing a pose, you should stop and come of the pose immediately. Also movement between poses should be gentle, smooth and slow. Most regular yoga poses will have to be modified for a pregnant woman in order to accommodate the changes that a woman’s body is going through at this time.
Avoid Overstretching
During pregnancy, a woman practising yoga must not stretch as much as she normally would. She should avoid doing poses that involve doing intense and rigrous stretches. Especially to be avoided are poses that stretch her ab muscles. There is also an increased danger of straining the muscles when a woman is pregnant because pregnancy hormones have the effect of loosening the connective tissues in the body.
Avoid Inverted Poses and Back Bends
During pregnancy a woman must avoid inverted poses such as Shoulder stands. However a modification of inverted poses can be performed such as: lying on the floor with the soles of the feet against a wall or the calves resting on a chair provided one is not lying on the back for very long periods of time. A pregnant lady should also avoid doing back bends because of the extra load that she is carrying on the front of the body. These poses put extra pressure on the spine and lower back and lead to injury.
If you or one of your relatives, friends or acquaintances is pregnant then we hope that this above article has shed some light on prenatal yoga and how important it is to do it under the instruction of the right Yoga Trainer.
Call us on 98206 07875 if you’d like to avail the services of a personal yoga trainer for coming home and assisting you during your pregnancy.
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