Pregnancy yoga classes have so many benefits for both mother and baby. Here are six of them.
1. Pregnancy yoga helps your mind and body relax
Developing a regular yoga and relaxation practice in pregnancy can help to train your mind and body to enter a state of relaxation and calm. This is the place you intuitively want to be as you move towards birthing your baby. Developing a familiarity with different breathing practices which we will focus on throughout the pregnancy yoga helps you to intuitively move into this when you are in labour. Using these breathing techniques during labour can help you to keep calm, focused and centred, which in turn helps you to release all the birthing hormones you need to support labour.
2. Prepare your body for labour
Pregnancy yoga encourages a gentle strengthening and toning of your body preparing you to meet labour with a sense of strength, fitness and focus. Your body will work harder than it has ever done to bring you your baby and it is invaluable to physically prepare for this, journey, as much as you can.
3. Pregnancy yoga positions can help in labour
Many of the poses we practice in pregnancy yoga can be used during your birth to help to sustain your energy, enable you to cope with the intensity of contractions and encourage the baby into an optimal position as it makes its way into the world. By practising them on a regular basis the positions will be really accessible for you to use intuitively when you are in labour.
4. Address common pregnancy ailments
Pregnancy yoga can address many of the common pregnancy symptoms such as sciatica, pelvic girdle instability, lower and upper back pain. Your posture and centre of gravity changes as your baby grows which can cause things to become misaligned. Pregnancy yoga will help you to develop an awareness of your changing posture so you can become really mindful of how you move in order to really care for your changing body.
5. Emotional support from fellow class members
At the start of the pregnancy yoga class, if you would like to, there is an opportunity to share with the group how you are doing. This creates a safe space to feel mutually supported by other pregnant women, give and receive advice and ideas and create connections with others that can last for life.
6. Develop your birth confidence
At the end of the pregnancy yoga class there is time to have informative discussions about anything pregnancy, birth or parenting related. The aim is that over the weeks you will become more informed about all aspects of birth and develop a sense of confidence in yourself, your body and what you want for your birth.
Find out more about my pregnancy yoga classes here, or get in touch to book your place.