Role of Prenatal Yoga during Pregnancy:

Prenatal Yoga is an unmatched research backed support for pregnancy. It is a safe and effective way to stay fit and help you relax throughout all of pregnancy. It is also known to help prepare for labor/ birth, as well as supports your baby’s health!

Unlike many other forms of prenatal exercise, Prenatal Yoga is more similar to birth preparation classes. Yoga is a holistic practice which takes a multifaceted approach to supporting the pregnant person. Yoga provides both physical fitness as well as emotional wellness. It is safe for nearly everyone including those who have never practiced yoga before and those who did not regularly exercise before pregnancy. Due to the nature of yoga, it is gentle for beginners and challenging for seasoned yoga practitioners. In fact, the sooner you begin Prenatal Yoga, the greater the benefit! 

Prenatal Yoga is recommended as one of the safest methods of exercise during pregnancy by both ACOG (American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology) and the American Academy of Pregnancy.

It is recommended that pregnant people get at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise each week. That is about 30 minutes per day. A typical Prenatal Yoga class will provide this and is a great compliment to other exercises because it not only keeps you fit, Prenatal Yoga actively works towards improving your birth outcome.

The numerous amounts of research show that Prenatal Yoga can:

• Improve sleep
• Reduce stress
• Increase strength, flexibility, and endurance
• Reduce backaches, constipation, bloating and swelling
• Decrease nausea
• Decrease carpal tunnel syndrome
• Decrease headaches
• Reduce risk of preterm labor
• Lower risk of intrauterine growth restriction (a condition that slows the baby’s growth)
• Boost your mood and energy levels
• Prevent excess weight gain

Other studies show additional possible benefits:

• A lower risk of gestational diabetes
• Shortened labor
• A reduced risk of having a C-section
• Reduced complications from hypertension (high blood pressure)
• Improved fetal outcome

Improved Birth Outcome

There are many factors which support an improved birth outcome. The birthing person’s outlook on labor and delivery is one example. They can prepare themselves for this major event by learning about the process through birth education classes, having a birth plan, and preparing their mind and body. This is where yoga comes in.

Yoga supports Improved Birth Outcome through reducing all of the risks such as stress, hypertension, excess weight gain, gestational diabetes, and contributors to preterm labor.

Yoga also supports good fetal positioning (super important for baby to make their way out), and improves the birthing person’s ability to take on various labor positions as well as endure the demands of labor.

Prenatal Yoga Poses are practice for labor and birth positions

Have you ever seen a chart of labor positions? Nearly every single one resembles a yoga pose. It takes more than knowing labor/ birth positions, the birthing person needs to be able to do them with ease. If a position is not comfortable it can be counterproductive. Would you attempt to do a full split if you had never done it before? Hopefully you answered no, because you realize you would likely pull a hamstring or other muscle. The same is true with labor and birth positions. In order for baby to make their way out of the womb, there needs to be mobility in the pelvis and hips. In fact birthing people are at higher risk for labrum tears and other hip/ pelvic injuries. Yoga helps increase this mobility, thus reduces the risk while increasing the easing the ability and stamina to labor. 

Prenatal Yoga Supports Fetal Positioning

It’s about balance and space. Yoga supports this by creating mobility within the torso which increases the space for baby and helps balance the body both physically and energetically. Prenatal Yoga poses support stretching, strengthening, stabilizing, and releasing all of the right muscles and skeletal structures to encourage baby to align just right with the pelvic outlet (aka. Where baby exits).

It’s also about balance and space in the mind! I once had a client who’s baby was breech at 36 weeks. Upon working with them we discovered that she had anxiety about exercise and therefore had been mostly sedentary during pregnancy often sitting in the same position. We practiced various movements to free up where her body was stuck and we practiced restorative poses to help ease her nervous system/ anxiety. After a few days of practice she felt calmer and was moving more freely without fear, and her baby turned! 

Prenatal Yoga verses Not Prenatal Yoga

There is a difference! Prenatal Yoga is going to be a class filled with other pregnant people, and social support is a major factor in the emotional wellness of birthing people. While it can be okay for a person to continue taking a yoga class they regularly enjoyed before pregnancy, it will not offer them all of the same benefits as a prenatal class. Prenatal Yoga is more than simply modifying poses for a growing belly. There are specific needs of a pregnant person. Some poses are better than others for supporting those needs, and some poses are counterproductive  to those needs. A regular yoga class is not going to offer such attunement, such as focusing on poses which support fetal position or labor/ birth positions. A regular class may be too fast paced for the pregnant person and cause overheating, dizziness, or simply not enough time for them to move through the poses safely. Additionally, a regular class will most likely include poses which are contraindicated or otherwise not safe for a pregnant person. Ultimately it is up to the pregnant person to know what is safe, what is not safe, and how to modify everything.

Who you learn from matters. Not all yoga poses are beneficial and therapeutic, nor are they even necessary and could be counterproductive or simply put not safe. This is true even for non-prenatal based practices. It all depends on the skill level of the teacher and their intention with what they teach.

Which leads me to…

Choosing a good qualified teacher

A good Prenatal Teacher will have education and experience working with pregnant people. They should know how to teach a class that offers more than a modified practice (as discussed in the last section). They should know about safety and be able to recognize when a student needs to slow down, take a break, or seek medical care. 

But what if your regular teacher says it’s okay to keep attending their class? That might be fine. Ask them what experience they have with pregnant students and how they will be able to support you in their class. They should know basic modifications, precautions, and the red flags for safety. It is ultimately up to you as the student to know those things too. Furthermore, you need to consider if they have their best interest in mind or if they want to retain their attendance numbers (sorry, but that’s a cold hard fact about yoga classes). A good teacher will gladly refer you to another class or teacher who can best support your ever changing needs (pregnancy or otherwise) knowing that when you are ready to return to their class you will appreciate them for supporting you and guiding you in the right direction. If a teacher cannot demonstrate those basic supports, disregards the acknowledgement of the difference in a prenatal class, and/or is reluctant to refer you to someone who can, it could put you in an unsafe situation. 

I recommend:

Find a good qualified teacher. Someone who is certified with the RPYT accreditation from Yoga Alliance is a great start or someone who has extensive background in both yoga and obstetrics/ midwifery. Look for a Prenatal specific class, or regular classes taught by a prenatal teacher.

If you continue to attend a regular class, learn how to modify your practice and keep yourself safe. You should never rely solely upon the teacher to know what is best for you in any yoga class, this is especially true in pregnancy.

Do add in a Prenatal class to compliment the regular class. This will give you an opportunity to learn ways to modify and be safe in regular class. It will also enable you to meet other pregnant people and begin to build your social support network. Plus, as pregnancy progresses you will need to adjust your practice more and more. Many find that they slow down, and shift the focus of their yoga practice as they move through the trimesters. Already having a Prenatal class in your routine will make the transition easier. For example: I went from three regular yoga classes per week before pregnancy (1 powerful vinyasa, 1 gentle vinyasa, and 1 Restorative), then I switched to 2 gentle vinyasa, and 1 prenatal, then 1 vinyasa and 2 prenatal, and eventually just the 2 prenatal. I realize not everyone goes to that many classes per week, but at the time that’s what I was into. Also, duly note that after the birth of my child I resumed yoga with a postpartum practice at 8 weeks and only attended 1 or 2 classes per week. If you want to know more about postpartum yoga, please see this post: Postpartum Yoga

Prenatal Yoga Compliments all other Pregnancy Care and Supports

Prenatal Yoga compliments the care provider and birth support people through helping the birthing person be as healthy as they can be through providing them with physical and emotional preparedness for labor and birth.It makes the OBGYN and/or Midwife’s job easier if the labor and birth are easier. It supports birth education classes through greater mobility and stamina to practice labor/ birth positions, and the mental wellness to endure the various forms of pain management methods.

Yoga compliments chiropractic and massage. Those adjustments hold longer when the tissue surrounding the vertebrae are more supple and hold less tension. It may even prevent the desire for certain adjustments by creating more overall balance in the body and better movement patterns. Similar is true for massage. You can spend less time in the massage undoing what yoga can prevent or relieve, and greater time on more of the body.

PLUS: A prenatal yoga teacher will often see a student/ client every week whereas other types of pregnancy support people and care are not as frequent. A good prenatal teacher will be able to monitor a pregnant person and refer them out to seek care or extra support (like massage, chiropractic, accupuncture, or their midwife/ obgyn). While prenatal teachers do not diagnose nor treat medical conditions, we are trained to spot red flags and symptoms which need attention by a professional. Additionally, for emotional support which is oh so important for the health and wellness of a mother, we are able to listen to their concerns with compassion and provide a community space with our classes for the pregnant person to find refuge in their peers and build their social support network. As a seasoned teacher, I find that often when you get a group of pregnant students together they not only build friendships, but share their recommendations for their care network 😉

In conclusion: All pregnant people should be practicing Prenatal Yoga, and all Birth Workers should be recommending it to their clients/ patients. It benefits everyone, especially those most important – the birthing person and their baby.