Why Yoga is important during Pregnancy

Every expectant mother wants to nurture and offer the best care for her child even inside the womb. Staying active during pregnancy will help not just the mother but also the baby, so putting in some extra effort to wake up half hour early to have a healthy start through prenatal workouts will be very beneficial, especially to the mother during labour. Body fitness is the best pregnancy care for expectant mothers. It is beneficial to follow any form of exercise that can help strengthen the muscles and prepare the body for child birth.

Therefore, yoga is very important during pregnancy because of its positive effect on labour. It can also help reduce post pregnancy weight loss, and help in shaping the body. Yoga can be practised even in the 8^th or 9th month of pregnancy for better outcome.

Some benefits of yoga to pregnant women include;

It Provides Balance: As the bump grows, your body’s centre of gravity shifts, which in turn causes back ache and other health problems. Apart from physical ailments, pregnancy hormones also play a role in disrupting your emotional balance. Prenatal yoga is one of the beneficial pregnancy workouts that provide physical and mental balance to the expectant mothers.

Prepare You for Labour: When you practice yoga from early pregnancy, it helps with breathing exercises which will come in handy during child birth. It also strengthens the pelvic floor muscles, hips and tummy which will support in easy labour by having control over the abdominal muscles. Yoga also helps you to concentrate and mentally prepares you for the big day.

Calm the Nerves: As you practice prenatal yoga poses, the nervous system goes into a parasympathetic mode which will relax the body and mind. It relieves stress, tension, and improves your sleep pattern; although you may experience mood swings, sleeplessness etc.

Lower Body Pain: Most pregnant women suffer from constant body pain that includes neck, shoulders, arms, hip, chest, upper back, lower back, thigh etc. Walking, cardio and swimming can contribute to pain relief, but all these exercises should be combined to give complete relief from muscle pain. However, pregnancy yoga is a one step remedy to all these ailments.

Increases Blood Circulation: Yoga poses tend to increase circulation and elongate muscles which relieve swelling and increase immunity. As pregnant women are prone to infection, it is good to improve your immune system which will keep your body active and create a healthy environment inside the womb for the baby to grow.

Strengthens the Body:  Yoga poses are widely practised. They help to build body stamina, and strengthen shoulders, arms, hips and back, compared to other exercises. Sign up for a prenatal yoga class, or you can go online to check out for different and easy options on pregnancy yoga positions to avoid strenuous poses that might be difficult during pregnancy.

If you are an expectant mother, you may want to start a yoga exercise because the benefits are just too much to be ignored. Why not start your yoga training today to ease your labour pain. Know that you can continue yoga even after child birth to keep a check on your post pregnancy weight gain. With regular workout regime, yoga can help you become a stronger and a better mom.

By: Mercy Kukah