HEALTH: The benefits of yoga during pregnancy

The benefits of yoga during pregnancy


Yoga
Lee Kennedy

For the past six years, I have been experiencing the blessings of teaching yoga for pregnancy. The challenge is to teach techniques that will take my students a long way in the relatively short amount of time that pregnancy lasts for. The ultimate aim is to make pregnancy more comfortable and help with the childbirth process itself.

Find some breathing space
As our babies grow, we often feel we’re running out of breathing space. Our uterus grows upwards, constricting lung capacity, and it gets easier to fall into the habit of short, rapid, shallow breathing into the upper chest. This shallow breath can bring on rapid heart beat, triggering anxiety, which is common in pregnancy.
Learning to direct your breath downwards into your abdomen will bring oxygen in contact with the deepest lobes of your lungs, practicing habitually will help you to expand your lung capacity. The more time you spend connecting with this practice, the better able you will be to draw upon it when you really need to – in labour! (To find out more about yoga and labour, watch out for my next article in two weeks’ time).

Optimal foetal positioning
The optimal foetal position (OFP) for childbirth is when your baby is head-down and with the spine facing outwards – in other words upside down and looking at your back!
Car travel, sitting in office chairs and reclining in sofas are no friends of OFP. To encourage OFP, we need to apply conscious effort from the middle of pregnancy onwards. Babies just like adults, can become set in their ways, but getting your baby into the right position for birth may mean less pain and less medical intervention. So, don’t leave OFP practice ’til the last minute!

> Spend lots of time kneeling or sitting upright/on your hands and knees so your knees aren’t higher than your pelvis.
> Relaxing yoga positions can help. Baddha Konasana (pictured) is ideal – sit with your back upright and the soles of your feet together, knees to the side.
> When you’re in the car sit on a wedge cushion so your pelvis is tilted forwards. Keep the seat-back upright.
> Don’t cross your legs. This reduces the space at the front of your pelvis where your baby needs it most.
> Sorry ladies, but don’t put your feet up! Lying back with your feet up encourages posterior presentation, which is far from ideal for labour.

It is important to become familiar with these techniques, as well as the many other yoga techniques that cultivate spaciousness and softness through the abdomen and pelvis. Learning how to work with gravity also helps. Without doubt, the best way to become familiar with the techniques – and to feel their benefits – is to integrate them into your daily routine and attend yoga classes led by an experienced teacher.
Commenting on the benefits of attending my Yoga for Pregnancy course, Terri, Co Mayo, explained: “It was yoga with education, preparation for birth and empowerment. As well as teaching yoga postures for pregnancy, Lee taught the class how to work with the breath and to connect with the baby. During my labour, by using the learned powerful breathing techniques, I was able to stay calm and in control of my baby’s birth. Any woman who gives birth knows how strong your body needs to be. Yoga really helped my body to become strong enough to stay on my feet during the lead up to the birth of my baby.
“Lee also uses her experience of ‘active birth’ and demonstrates good positions for labour, some of which I used during my five-hour labour. I’m certain that if I hadn’t learned these positions and breathing techniques, I would have had a much longer labour.’

Next time Birth, motherhood and children.