For many women, pregnancy is a rather stressful period of time even though it is filled with the happy expectation of meeting a baby. While hormones are changing every day, the body itself is developing into something absolutely new. Certainly, many women are experiencing various negative feelings during pregnancy on the physical and mental levels.
Experts are recommending pregnant women to exercise daily for at least 30 minutes which is crucial not only for their well-being, but also for a healthy pregnancy itself. Many people who decide to include easy workouts into their daily routine during pregnancy choose yoga. Actually, this is a very good choice and here you will find why.
Yoga can help you to reduce painful sensations
Many pregnant women are suffering from pain in their backs especially in the lumbar region. Yoga can help you to decrease this sensations or get rid of them entirely.
On the one hand, the mild exercises included into popular yoga workouts for pregnant women are great for gentle stretching which helps to minimise the pain. On the other hand, staying in various yoga poses also helps to strengthen your muscles. Undeniably, this is very helpful for pregnant women.
Yoga can reduce stress
Undeniably, you heard many times about the magic ability of yoga to reduce stress level. This is crucial for everyone, however, it is absolutely vital for pregnant women. You are certainly aware of the fact that too much of stress can not only cause damage to the proper development of your baby but it can even cause a miscarriage or a preterm birth.
An essential part of yoga practice is based on the work on mindfulness, relaxation and increase of concentration. The combination of yoga practices gives a great effect in the fight with stress. This has already been proved experimentally when researchers compared the stress level of pregnant women who have chosen yoga workouts and the stress level of the women who were practising traditional exercises for pregnant women. It turned out that the latter was reducing the stress level by 6.6% whereas yoga decreased the level of stress by 31.57%.
A crucial part of yoga is the fact it is teaching people to react to negative situations in a different way which itself does not let the stress level to alleviate in the first place.
The overall positive effect
Taking into consideration the previous facts about yoga, it becomes obvious that pregnant women practicing yoga on a regular basis have better chances for a more fulfilling life. When their mental condition is well-balanced and physical health does not cause discomfort due to the regular yoga workouts, they can enjoy their life more. On top of that, pregnant women practising yoga are also able to improve their relations with other people which is also crucial since many pregnant women can get into frequent arguments with others because of their anxiety and hormonal imbalance.
Yoga increases the chances for successful delivery
Certainly, all of the positive aspects of yoga help pregnant women to go through labour more easily. As it has already been mentioned, yoga helps to avoid various unpleasant and even dramatic situations during pregnancy. Moreover, the internal balance, a positive attitude as well as a good muscle condition developed by yoga exercises helps women to get through labour without complications.
On top of that, women who practise yoga on a regular basis during their pregnancies, will also be able to restore their physical condition after pregnancy more easily and without complications.
What should you do if you want to practise yoga during pregnancy?
First of all, you should assess your overall physical condition. If you used to have any physical workouts before pregnancy, yoga will not add any stress to your body when you will be expecting a baby. Yet, if you were not physically active before pregnancy, you should choose only the most gentle exercises available in yoga.
The general recommendation for exercising for women who did not have regular workouts before pregnancy is to start exercising from the 12th week of pregnancy under the condition of feeling well.
Of course, there are particular conditions in which practicing yoga might not be a good idea. If you are going through intense maternal toxicity, you have low-lying placenta or there is any risk of having a miscarriage, you should avoid exercising and any other physical activity. Even if there is no conditions of the ones mentioned here, you should still consult your doctor before starting exercising.
While exercising be attentive to the poses as not of them are suitable for pregnant women and avoid overheating. You can stretch only to the level which is allowed for pregnant women. Note that “hot” yoga is absolutely forbidden during pregnancy.