Prenatal Yoga

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:57:11 +0000

Every woman wants to have a healthy baby. Yoga poses and breathign exercises, when done with care, can make a woman's body stronger and more flexible. Yoga poses tone your muscles, improving the overall balance and circulation, while making your joints more limber.
Yoga poses help you breathe and relax, which can help you adjust to the physical demands of labor, birth, and motherhood. Learning how to do yogic breathing gets you ready for labor and childbirth, by training you to stay calm when you need it most. If you are afraid during labor, the body produces adrenalin and shuts down the production of oxytocin, a hormone that makes labor progress. Yoga practice will help you fight the urge to tighten up when you feel the pain, and show you how to breathe instead.

The practice of meditation is extremely beneficial for you and your baby. It has been proven to slow down your heart rate, relax and focus your mind - all great for the baby. Meditation does not have to be a two-hour a day affair. Sitting quietly for fifteen minutes and focusing on your breath would be very beneficial. You can take the time you meditate as way to connect to your baby and feel his or her moves, as you quietly sit with a hand on your belly and breathe.

As a general rule, avoid anything that seems painful. Slightly uncomfortable is ok with caution, painful is never fine. Avoid extreme backbending poses, as well as extreme forward bending. Place your legs apart for seated forward bend.Work on squeezing your muscles towards the center: this will help you to avoid overstretching, which is especially important towards the end. Practice side-stretches daily, to give the baby more room, as the intercoastal muscles between the ribs stretch.

If you never practiced inverted poses before, now is not the time to start. However, if you have a practice of inversions, you may carefully continue for the first two trimesters. Don't hold the poses for too long.

You may want to skip any movements that require you to lie flat on your back for longer than a few minutes, especially after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Lying on your back can put pressure on your inferior vena cava, the vein that returns blood from the legs to the heart, and can cause dizziness, shortness of breath, and nausea. But many women are comfortable lying in this position well into their pregnancies, so watch your body and your instincts.

Start a love affair with yoga props: blocks, straps, blankets, bolsters: you can see the demonstration of a correct way of using them in a YogaPulse: Pregnant, Fit and tight video.

First trimester
You don't have many restrictions this early in your pregnancy. If you're a regular yoga practitioner, accept that your routine will require modifications as time goes on. Do not practice on a full stomach to alleviate nausea. Start practicing the "legs up the wall" pose, insteaf of a shoulderstand. Listen to your body: even though you are probably not showing yet, your blood volume increases greatly, making you more tired. Be gentle and loving with your body. If you haven't yet, start a daily meditation practice. Do breathing exercises. Write in your journal: it would help you to better connect to oyur body and your mind.

Second trimester
Don't try to hold poses for a long time, and remember to sink into yoga positions slowly and carefully, in order to avoid injury, because of your loosening joints. Your expanding belly will effect your sense of balance, so keep your feet separated hip-width apart or wider.

Third trimester
You're probably feeling less graceful now that your belly is bigger, so perform standing poses with your heel to the wall to avoid losing your balance and risking injury to you or your baby. Props such as blocks and straps can also help you move through different poses with greater stability. Introduce multiple seated hip opening poses to your practice, if you haven't yet. It will help you with birth.

And finally: love your expanding body as you are walking on this magical path to healthy motherhood.

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Prenatal Yoga