A person’s prenatal time is one of beauty, joy and often challenge. Prenatal yoga, under the guidance of a well-trained and careful instructor, provides benefits to the birthing person and pregnancy far beyond simple rest, relaxation and stretching. Though these too are important and beneficial, this is just the beginning.
The list below is simply a list, without ranking order, of many of the benefits that a birthing person may receive from practicing prenatal yoga throughout their pregnancy. The benefits exceed what I’ve written here.
1. Promotes stress relief and relaxation
There is often a lot going through the mind of a parent-to-be. They are experiencing changes in their lives in multiple areas, and they are preparing their body, mind, and home for the coming baby. The mother or parent-to-be, similar to many of us, may not see opportunities to rest, relax, and simply be.
A yoga practice well-suited for their changing needs can help the birthing parent shift the focus of their attention into the internal environment of their body and away from the things that may be stressing them out, like worrying, plans, and the never-ending to-do list. The parent-to-be is deciding to nurture themselves and listen to their own needs, even if for only an hour or less. A little bit of time and honest attention can go a long way. When attention is turned towards the movements of the body, the sensations, and the breath, as is encouraged in a yoga practice, feelings of calm and centeredness tend to naturally arise, and perhaps upcoming challenges can be approached with a fresh perspective.
Yoga postures and breathing exercises that help one relax are taking us out of the sympathetic nervous system fight or flight stress response and more into the parasympathetic nervous system relaxation response, which also aids in hormonal balance and shifting into a restful state with greater ease.
2. Prepares the mind and the physical body for the journey of labor
As mom or parent-to-be practices turning the focus of their attention away from the things that are not serving them and that stress them out and towards the things that are serving them and calm them down, they are preparing themselves for labor. Practicing body and breath awareness, as is done in yoga, is a powerful technique to help with pain management as it helps the laboring person to focus and relax. Endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers, will be more effective as they allow themselves to relax and move through the sensations of labor.
Many physical yoga postures help with opening and releasing around the hips, pelvis, and pelvic floor muscles – all areas of the body that will be asked to open a lot to birth a baby. Practicing these types of opening and stretching postures allow the body to be more ready to open and stretch for the baby to be born. Most classical prenatal yoga postures that will be practiced in prenatal yoga classes will help open around the pelvis and pelvic floor while providing plenty of room for the baby.
Healthy alignment in postures can also help to encourage an optimal birthing position for the baby, which is usually a head down position. This is one reason why the instructor may encourage props or blankets to be placed under the seat in seated positions versus letting the pelvis roll back and round the lower back, which slightly compresses the lower belly area and uterus. Some postures, like table variations and child’s pose allows a pregnant person to more easily find a neutral position of their pelvis (not tipped forward or back). That neutral position not only decreases the likelihood of low back pain for them, but it also encourages optimal positioning of the baby for birth.
3. Tones the deep core muscles, particularly the transverse abdominis and the pelvic floor, and encourages them to relax
The muscles of the deep core help mom-to-be stay strong and more stable around her pelvis and lower back. This becomes increasingly important as her body is asked to support the healthy weight gain of her pregnancy.
Deep toning of the pelvic floor will facilitate a speedier recovery postnatally, and it will help reduce or prevent stress incontinence, prolapse, and recovery of stitches and tears.
The very act of consciously practicing toning the pelvic floor will also help to facilitate its conscious relaxation. The ability to discriminate between toning and relaxing the pelvic floor is important as the mother moves through her pregnancy, labor, postpartum recovery, and far beyond. She will be able to access strength and support for her body when she needs and find full relaxation when she needs. This will probably also have a positive impact on her sex life.
The practice of relaxing the pelvic floor is beneficial as she nears labor. Labor can potentially progress more quickly if during contractions her pelvic floor and surrounding muscles are as relaxed as possible. Awareness of the pelvic floor engaging and releasing can be a wonderful aid during the last few pushes of laboring her baby.
4. Opens around the chest, breasts, neck, and shoulders
As mom-to-be’s pregnancy progresses and her baby and breasts grow, her shoulders often get pulled forward creating a kyphosis, or rounding forward of her thoracic spine. Over time, this excessive rounding forward can create pain and tightness in many places along her back, neck, shoulders, and arms, as well as result in a more shallow breath.
The prenatal yoga postures that help bring opening to the chest and shoulders and length to the front and sides of the body can also help ease heartburn and acid reflux, a common complaint during pregnancy.
This group of yoga postures will help to keep these areas more open and mobile creating a greater sense of overall well being.
5. Brings length to the lower back lumbar spine
As the pregnant woman’s belly beautifully grows, her lumbar spine is often pulled into an excessive amount of lordotic curve, which can painfully compress parts of her spine and the surrounding nerves.
Many prenatal yoga postures and alignment cues will encourage a lengthening of the lower back and a tractioning to the spine, which brings more space to these compressed areas, easing the associated pain and discomfort.
6. Opens the hips
Most of us have varying degrees of tightness in our hips, and this is especially common during pregnancy. Mom-to-be is working hard everyday to carry the extra weight of supporting a growing baby. Her pelvis and hips are going through a great deal of change as they are preparing to labor a baby. The extra weight and changes in the pelvis often relate to increased tightness in the hips. The issue is not so much tightness in the hips but rather if it has progressed to a point that is causing tightness and immobility in the lower back and/or piriformis syndrome. The piriformis is a muscle deep in the hips that can sometimes become so tight that it compresses the sciatic nerve, which when compressed can cause much pain. Many prenatal yoga postures will address tightness in the hips and help relieve these common pregnancy symptoms.
7. Provides a safe space for a pregnant woman to exercise and center herself
Well-trained Prenatal Yoga instructors have designed a class sequence of postures with the pregnant woman specifically in mind. The instructor will know how to help her modify or safely enhance the postures so that the practice is speaking to her needs. A typical group yoga or exercise class may have postures or exercises that mom needs to skip or that don’t feel good to her. A generally-trained instructor is most likely not experienced or additionally trained in working with pregnant women, and therefore, a healthy alternative probably won’t be offered.
Many of my all levels group yoga classes and those taught by other instructors will contain options for an arm balance, a deep backbend, an intermediate inversion, twists, and core work exercises – all of which would be considered contraindicated for most pregnant women.
A prenatal yoga class provides the mother with a safe environment to exercise, relax, and nurture herself without feeling the pressure from a non-prenatal group class to do exercises that may not be a good fit for her body at that time.
8. Provides a time for a woman to connect and consciously tune-in to her baby
All women’s experiences of how and when they tune-in to their babies is very different and beautifully unique. Prenatal yoga simply provides her the uninterrupted time to consciously move, breathe, relax, and possibly set intentions with her baby.
This time may also encourage her to be in her own process, which is radically unique and wise. She can continue to enjoy supporting the processes of those around her and hearing suggestions from books and the web, but she will know that ultimately her guidance lies within.
9. Provides a community for sharing and connecting with other pregnant women
When we have a way to share and express what is going on with us, whether it be purely physical or emotional, it can be incredibly powerful to simply be heard, especially by those that are probably experiencing similar joys and challenges.
Prenatal Yoga classes often begin with a short share, and after class many women tend to talk more freely with each other. Even if she chooses not to share anything vocally, it can be just as, if not even more powerful, to share in the experience and presence of others.
10. Provides useful tools regarding mindfulness and self-care that can serve a woman into motherhood and throughout her life
A pregnant woman is already a Mother. She nurtures her baby with every breath, thought, and movement. In order to sustainably nurture another being, she must also learn, if she hasn’t already, how to care for herself.
Motherhood for me was a new level of yoga. There was a lot of adjusting and transitioning into a new stage of life and relationships. My previous 15 years of yoga practice did come in handy but in a radically different way than before I became a mother. I had to let go of my old ways of practicing yoga and shift into a way of movement that felt nurturing in that moment. I realized one day while caring for my baby that until that moment I had used yoga in my real life very little. I had imagined that I was using yoga all of the time, and I didn’t see that I was only living in the idea of yoga rather than using a quiet practice as a tool to process the events of life and live in a chosen state. I saw this clearly one day when I was experiencing challenges that related to my baby and me not sleeping well. I felt overwhelmed, tired, stressed, and angry. I would sometimes lose my temper and slam a door or throw my phone. After what felt like many failed attempts, I decided one day to not lose my cool because things weren’t going like I wanted them to go. That reactive type of behavior wasn’t fair to me or anyone else around me. I took a conscious breath and a look at my desire to react and explode in a situation that was challenging, and the big wave of anger passed. I realized that I had just used what I’d been practicing in yoga for so long.
I notice more now that as I feel the pull to strongly react, that I am usually in need of some self-care and quiet time. This is when an intelligent yoga movement practice feels like water being poured over a fire.
Just as in prenatal yoga when we are focused on what feels good in our bodies, in motherhood the yoga practice extends to what feels good in our lives. We are challenged to grow in our ability to discern between what is and is not enhancing and uplifting our lives. We gather the strength and confidence to make uncomfortable shifts in our perspectives and lives so that we’re able to preserve as much of our energy as possible. We are asked to act in a way that serves our deep needs and those of our children.