Yoga is good for the body and good for the mind. By its very principle it works on the body as a whole, and it helps you handle pain and emotion alike — which is exactly what makes prenatal yoga such fine preparation for birth. Here is what it gives you, and what to watch for.
Who is prenatal yoga for?
You don’t need a rubber body, or years of practice behind you, to prepare for birth this way. Classes designed for pregnant women exist for exactly this. They work on relaxation, balance and suppleness, on learning to read your own body, and on holding mind and body in step with each other.
What prenatal yoga does for you
Yoga eases the ordinary complaints of pregnancy — circulation trouble, anxiety, pain in the back and lower back — and it prepares you for the birth itself. You’ll work on your breathing, so you can steer it when the moment comes to push, on softening the perineum, and on stretches that leave you looser and calmer. That breathing work covers the same ground as sophrology, for a birth met with serenity.
What to watch for
Like any physical activity during pregnancy, prenatal yoga comes with a few rules. Skip postures that lie you face down, and skip deep twists of the torso: both press directly on the baby. Inversions — weight on the hands, the forearms or the head — are best left alone in the first trimester, and afterwards belong to women who were already practising them before they were pregnant. Late in pregnancy, don’t stay flat on your back for long either. Lie on your left side instead.
In every case, the first step is your doctor or your midwife, all the more so with a high-risk pregnancy, a history of miscarriage, high blood pressure, or cardiovascular or circulatory conditions. Once you have the green light, choose a prenatal class led by a teacher trained to work with pregnancy rather than an ordinary one.
Where to begin
You can start looking at classes once or twice a week from the fourth month of pregnancy, once the more delicate first weeks of pregnancy are behind you — unless the health professional following your pregnancy says otherwise.
