Prenatal yoga is a form of yoga that is meant for pregnant women and helps them prepare for labor. If you follow the proper steps while doing prenatal yoga, it would positively impact your baby’s health as well. It essentially involves stretching movements and exercises. But what’s more important than physical training is the mental aspect of it. Being a mother needs a lot of emotional preparation and prenatal yoga helps in the same as well. Apart from that, it would help you improve your breathing and stabilize it to keep you calm during your delivery procedure. Reducing pregnancy-related stress and anxiety, improving muscle endurance and flexibility and alleviating back ache and nausea are some of the notable advantages of prenatal yoga. Moreover, you would also be able to connect with other pregnant women. Studies have shown that if you interact with people going through the same changes during pregnancy, it can help boost your courage. Discussed below are some important components of prenatal yoga.
- Breathing
In prenatal yoga, you would be encouraged to take deep breaths slowly with the help of your nose. This would help you keep your breathing steady while you’re in labor when you might experience shortness of breath. With regular practice, you would face less fatigue after your yoga sessions. This is also a great way of boosting your stamina.
- Stretching
The stretching included in prenatal yoga isn’t intense and fast paced. You would simply have to stretch your joints to make them more flexible. You can switch on some calming music to help you feel the process. You don’t have to overexert yourself while you’re performing the stretches. Perfection is not the motive. The key is to enhance the mobility of your muscles by not keeping them static as that can make them prone to injuries.
- Poses Or Postures
Prenatal yoga postures should be done as gently as possible. You would just have to move your arms and feet to hold positions that would make the process of labor smoother and less painful by improving your strength and balance. To help you further, you can make use of props like cushions, pillows, and blankets. These would provide you with support and reduce exertion.
- Relaxation
Like in every other form of yoga, cooling down is extremely vital in prenatal yoga as well. Once you’re done with your regular session, you should spend a considerable amount of time restoring your breathing rhythm and heart rate. This is the time for relaxation. You can either listen to some comforting music or simply focus on your own breathing. This time can be utilized for meditation as well. It is essential for pregnant women to spend some meditative time regularly, in their own company.