By Ms. Shalini Bhargava
Director at JG’S Fitness Centre
Is performing yoga safe during pregnancy? This is the most common question that ponders the minds of expectant moms. Pregnant women must make note that physical activity and a little bit of exercise in moderation is deeply encouraged in pregnancy. Performing yoga is an exceptional way of staying fit and healthy during your gestational period. From your physical body to your emotive state, prenatal yoga is a key ingredient to a healthy and happy pregnancy.
So what exactly is pregnancy yoga? Like conventional yoga, pregnancy yoga makes use of physical exercises (called postures) and inhalation techniques to stabilize your mind and body. Some yoga positions will be the same as in a normal yoga postures, while others will be altered particularly for pregnancy.
Benefits of doing yoga while you are expecting:
You may be comprehending if pregnancy yoga is good for you? Yes, it definitely is— the various yoga poses play a major role in keeping your body supple, sturdy and in good shape. Furthermore yoga also aids in improving sleep patterns, condenses nervousness, anxiety and depression and may also facilitate in reducing pregnancy related back pain and nausea. The various breathing and relaxation techniques in yoga can be used during labour. Yoga may also teach you good positions to adopt during labour to aid you through contractions and that help delivery. Below mentioned are ways by which yoga can make a constructive difference in your pregnancy.
Supports Your Fluctuating Body: It is a known fact that a women’s body is always changing due to the various hormonal changes that take place in our body. During pregnancy, the body experiences an enhanced pace of change and definitely needs support in adjusting and compensating. Prenatal yoga practice is intended to support the variations that happen in a pregnant women’s body. The various postures bestow women with safe and healthy ways to expanse their muscles and fortify their bodies especially their lower bodies to ease the procedure of supporting a growing belly.
Helps to tones Vital Muscle Groups: Prenatal yoga nurtures and tones the physical body, specially the hip, pelvic floor and abdominal core muscles, in preparation for the process of birthing process. A rightly toned muscle has the proper equilibrium between length and strength – it is neither too lax nor too tight. Constructing and upholding muscle tone during gestation, with yoga postures like lunges and mild backbends, can benefit in minimalizing the twinges and pains that take place within the nine months, and are key in getting your body back to a toned condition post-delivery.
Makes you all set for labor and delivery: Yoga teaches a women to trust that her body will open” up to labor and birth. Practising yogic approaches of deep, careful breathing techniques can assist the body to loosen up and unwind, and help women to let their bodies do what they impulsively already know how to do: giving birth.
Offers Relief From Common Pregnancy-related complaints: Prenatal yoga can prove to be cure for what troubles you if you are suffering from common pregnancy anxieties such as pain in the lower back, the feeling of nausea, sleeplessness, headaches, shortness of breath, and carpal tunnel syndrome. By extending and toning body muscles, you can facilitate blood to flow all through the body in a healthy way. Also, deep breathing techniques help to deliver the much-required oxygen to your baby and also to your own muscles. Mindful yoga, which amalgamates physical postures with meditation practices, can bring quantifiable respite to the depression that can accompany the emotional journey to motherhood.
Bestows you with a healthier pregnancy: It is absolutely true when you say that a healthy mother is more probable to have a healthy baby. It has been researched that women who indulge in yoga on a regular basis during pregnancy were less likely to suffer from preterm labor or to give birth to a low-birthweight baby.
While yoga does shower moms-to-be with numerous health benefits, it is extremely important to note that not all yoga is safe and advisable for pregnant women. Yoga forms, such as Bikram, and other types of yoga that need a hot environment, are not at all safe for the expecting mother. Practising these hot forms of yoga can lead to hyperthermia. Any postures in which you lie flat on your back, or involve a lot of stomach stretching, are also not suggested for pregnant ladies.
Moreover, women who are at danger of premature labor should also refrain from practicing prenatal yoga without consulting your health expert. Always bear in mind to moderate your yoga regime to about thirty minutes and you should never push yourself. Yoga is a means to unwind, so there is no reason for you to push yourself, which is not safe or healthy for an expectant mother.