Giving birth to a baby can be extremely challenging for themother's body, and yoga can help with both the elasticity and endurance powerof expecting mothers, in turn increasing chances of a normal delivery, says amaternity yoga expert who runs a Gurgaon-based health and wellness yoga centre.
Kedar Nath, Director of Maatriyoga says the aim of pregnancyyoga is to help the mother bring the unborn into the world with minimum hassleand completely no health complications. Positions and exercises practiced acrossthe three trimesters of pregnancy can differ with every phase.
The pre- and post-natal yoga sessions, now also conductedonline, are focussed on ensuring maternal comfort, training to deal with laborpain and manage birth outcomes. Most of all, pregnancy yoga done in the correctway can help mothers avoid complicated surgical procedures.
Envisioning a platform for women's empowerment and promotingholistic well-being, the health centre focuses on prioritizing self-care inpregnancy. The wellness services support expectants and new mums, and infantsin the first 1,000 days of life.
"As per industry estimates, about 90 per cent of womenprepare themselves for a normal delivery. However, only 65 per cent of them areable to achieve this. There are factors, such as eating habits and overallwell-being which hampers the natural delivery process. Yoga not just helps indelivery of the baby naturally but also helps maintain the physical and mentalwell-being of the woman," says Kedar Nath.
"Although it became a trend to do yoga for physicalfitness but it has meditative and spiritual value also. It brings contentment,and gives peace to your mind. Yoga helps to fight with all the problems which awoman faces during pregnancy," he adds.
"You need more oxygen during pregnancy, and your bodyadapts to meet this need in several ways. An increase in hormones, particularlyprogesterone, directly affects your lungs and stimulates the respiratory centrein your brain. And while the number of breaths you take per minute actuallychanges very little during pregnancy, the amount of air you inhale and exhalewith each breath increases significantly."
For the first trimester, standing yoga poses are advised asthis will help strengthen the legs, enhance circulation, generate energy, andmay reduce leg cramps.
During the second and third trimester, you should focus onbreathing and meditation. you may reduce your time spent practicing the asanasto prevent fatigue and overwork.
It is also not advised to practice from the tenth throughthe fourteenth week of pregnancy since these are crucial times. Do notoverstretch the abdomen; the emphasis of your twisting poses should be on theshoulders and the upper back and not on the abdomen.
"Besides these yoga asanas you can do walking which isone of the cheapest ways to get fit. During pregnancy chances of constipationand high blood pressure are high. So walking 30 minutes twice a day preventsthese problems. Walk slowly but walk daily."