10 Benefits of Prenatal Yoga

In this post I am sharing 10 reasons (to name a few!) that a prenatal yoga practice is great for momma and baby-to-be. You may have read a sentence or two in that pregnancy book of yours that mentioned trying prenatal yoga. Or perhaps you are looking into forms of exercise that are safe during pregnancy, and stumbled upon yoga. If you’ve considered starting a yoga practice in your pregnancy, this may help give some reasons to get started!

1. Relieves pregnancy aches & pains - Yoga poses bring relief to the common (but no less miserable!) pregnancy aches and pains. Low back, upper back & shoulders, hips, pelvic and round ligament pain, sleep struggles, all of these can be alleviated through a regular yoga practice!
2. Strength & conditioning - The physical yoga practice will strengthen and condition the body for the marathon of labor and delivery
3. Improved mental focus and energy - Yoga classes give an opportunity to practice mental focus which is a useful tool during birth
4. Accepting changes throughout the body - Let’s face it, most of us at some point in pregnancy mourn for our pre-pregnancy body and lives! It’s normal and natural. The changes happening inside and out are totally out of our control. While these may be welcomed and empowering, the can also be difficult and challenging. Yoga practice gives us the opportunity to practice acceptance with the way the body is changing in pregnancy and beyond. What a lovely way to honor and thank our bodies for creating life with yoga and showing self-love, compassion, and self-care.
5. Learn breath techniques and meditations - This topic itself will be its own post eventually on the benefits of breath and meditation! For the sake of pregnancy though, these practices help to calm and regulate the brain and nervous system. These tools are so incredibly useful especially during the most challenging moments of pregnancy, birth, and motherhood.
6. Surrendering control - We hear it all the time, make your birth plan but accept that you just cannot always control how things play out. No matter how prepared you are, you have to remain open to surrendering control over the birth at times. Yoga classes give us a real chance to practice letting go and surrendering to the experience, knowing that you will move through it with strength and grace.
7. Gain confidence in yourself, your body, and your baby - You were built to birth your baby. You have the intuition, power, and strength to birth and nurture your child! In prenatal class, you will learn to strengthen and empower your mind and body and know and trust that you are capable and made to do this!
8. Relaxation throughout pregnancy can benefit the baby - There have been studies that show that a woman’s mental well-being may affect her baby. If she is in a constant state of worry and stress, the baby is not immune to those feelings. Alternatively, if a woman is happy and relaxed throughout her pregnancy, the baby benefits. While life circumstances and stressors certainly aren’t avoidable, practicing yoga can give time and space to distance and set the worries and tension aside, even if it’s just for a few minutes each day!
9. Preparation for postpartum - Life postpartum is certainly challenging, and tools practiced in prenatal classes, such as breath techniques to calm the nervous system, can be very helpful during the stressful times of caring for a newborn!
10. Relieve postpartum aches and pains - Now that baby is on the outside, getting out to a yoga class may be very unlikely. However, if you have a practice during pregnancy, you may feel able to implement a few poses on your own from the comfort of home. Yoga is great for relieving aches and pains that come with caring for your baby, such as upper back and shoulder tension and tightness from nursing & feeding. The poses and stretches you learn in prenatal yoga are just as helpful (if not more so!) during postpartum!

I could truly go on and on here about more benefits to practicing yoga during pregnancy, as really the list doesn’t just stop here. Reach out to me if you are curious to know more about how and why yoga could be a great resource through your pregnancy and motherhood journey. I am always so happy to share more about prenatal yoga and why it is so helpful and encouraged during pregnancy and postpartum! Hopefully this has inspired you to take a class and see which of these benefits you notice from your first yoga class. I would love to know your experience!

🖤Christie

© Christie Trksak Gibertini | Divine Child Yoga LLC | www.divinechildyoga.com