Pregnancy
and Yoga
Mindy Wyllie
CSOCS 3452 Yoga: Theory, Culture
and Practice
Professor Laura Douglass, Ph.D.
December 6, 2012
Abstract
Yoga
has been recognized for the curative byproducts kindled from the practice and
adapted to facilitate modern needs, despite the initial intention to bring the
yogi closer to enlightenment. Modernized
views of yoga emphasize yoga as a physical exercise; interestingly, yoga for
pregnancy takes on an integrated approach including breathing techniques as
well as meditation. Yoga during
pregnancy focuses on the mind body connection for the reduction of stress,
physical fitness, as well as a means of adaptation to the constant changes
which are occurring within the women’s body.
The research available supports yoga as beneficial for pregnancy, but
has limitations and needs to be further explored.
Introduction
Yoga
is a holistic practice that may be adapted to aide women throughout their
pregnancy. The research done on this
subject is quite limited to women of a particular social and economic
status. Women, who are considered middle
class, are often married and they themselves are working. Despite the limitations in research, it does
appear a yoga practice is beneficial to the physical and emotional wellbeing of
a woman during pregnancy. It is hard to
know if the results would be the same in women who are struggling to meet their
basic needs. Relaxation seems to be the
primary focus of yoga for a pregnant mother.
The expectant mother is going through a lot of physical and hormonal
changes. Stress induced ailments, as
well as excessive weight gain and lack of sleep are physical symptoms that
maybe minimalized through a yoga practice during pregnancy.
I
have recently found my peers are beginning to start their families. As I hope to do sometime in the near
future. I feel if I’m going to take on
the responsibility of parenthood, I should learn what I can to be a consciences
parent right from the start. My personal
beliefs are deeply intertwined in my desire to learn more about the benefits of
yoga to an expecting mother. I know how
yoga has improved my life, but I was curious what information is available for
pregnant women who wish to practice yoga.
I feel, in our society nowadays, yoga is commonly recommended for
pregnant women, but that wasn’t always the case. Over the last twenty-five years, there has
been focus on the healthy development of the fetus, in which moderate exercise is
now considered a healthy practice for pregnant women. (Pruett & Caputo,
2011)
In addition to looking at the
pregnancy through the lens of physical wellbeing, more emphasis is being placed
on the mother’s emotional state as well.
I feel the mother’s emotional state is equally important to the
development of her child as her physical state.
Stress and anxiety can be maladaptive to the health of the mother and
the unborn child. Yoga is a way to
promote emotional balance, physical strength and flexibility and turn the
women’s consciousness inward to tune into her own needs.
Who Does Yoga While They Are
Pregnant?
The people who have the time to incorporate yoga into their lives are a
certain population in and of themselves.
Traditionally, it seems as though yoga was a male dominated, spiritually
driven, pursuit; that being said incorporating yoga as a means to aide women
through pregnancy, in my opinion, is a reflection of our modern cultures
ability to extract an element of a philosophy to be incorporated into our
modern lifestyles. Yoga is not being
used to draw the individual closer to enlightenment. Yoga for the expecting mother is to
facilitate the changes associated with pregnancy. The women who are able to incorporate yoga
into their lives tend to be of a certain social and economic status.
The research available on the subject shows the people participating in
these studies to be of a fairly specific population. “Because participants in this sample were
predominantly, White, middle class, employed, well educated, and married,
results cannot be generalized to other ethnicities or socioeconomic groups; nor
should results be generalized to women with pregnancy complications.” (Beddoe,
Lee, Weiss, Kennedy & Yang, 2010, p. 368)
The women who have been shown to benefit from yoga are relatively well
off and are low risk or what would be considered to be experiencing a normal
pregnancy. Although pregnant women of
all income levels could potentially benefit from yoga, it doesn’t seem
realistic that they would be incorporating the practice into their life. Yoga seems as though it is a practice for
those with the luxury of time and many cases money. The image I get of yoga in regards to
pregnancy is the modern westernized women.
She is working and pencils her yoga class into her life when she
can.
Women in our modern culture are
dealing with a great amount of stress.
It would be nice to think we have the time and patience to create the
ideal environment in which to be pregnant.
However, in today’s world this may be unrealistic. Yoga
offers the opportunity to cultivate a quiet place for the pregnant women to
find within her and hopefully carry throughout her day. “The pregnant woman, focusing inward, can begin to
discover and utilize the techniques that provide her with the greatest
comfort.” (Worzer, 2004, p.18) The idea of
providing the expectant mother with her greatest comfort is a very lovely
image, but it does make one think, what of the mother who doesn’t have a home,
or doesn’t know how she will feed her unborn child? It seems as though her greatest comfort would
look quite different for this women.
Why is Yoga Beneficial for
Pregnancy?
Today women in our society are multifaceted, not only are they mothers,
but they are employees or employers.
Even something as natural as pregnancy has been adapted to our modern
way of living. “It is as though many
women simply do not have time to focus on the special needs of pregnancy-
pregnancy just unfolds while the woman continues her daily routine.” (Worzer,
2004, p.16) Women are empowered to do it
all; there is no need to choose between a family and a career. However, due to the nature of our busy on the
go lifestyles stress seems inevitable.
Studies are showing a direct correlation between emotional and physical
health. Negative emotions such as stress
and anxiety are detrimental to the psyche and cause physical harm. “Recent well controlled human studies
indicate that pregnant women with high stress and anxiety levels are at
increased risk of spontaneous abortion, preterm labor, malformations, and
asymmetric growth retardation.” (Narendran, Nagarathna, Narendran, Gunasheela,
& Nangendra, 2005, p.238) Seeing the
relationship between the mental and physical aspects of the body, it makes
sense to implement a practice that embraces treatment for a person as a whole.
The nature of yoga is to incorporate all aspects of the self to find a
greater sense of wellbeing. Pregnancy is
a time where optimal health is needed for the proper development of the fetus. “Yoga is non-invasive, economical, and easy
to learn solution to improve the quality of life of pregnant women, improve
their abilities to perform their social roles, and potentially prevent adverse
obstetrics outcome.” (Rakhshani, Maharana, Raghuram, Nagendra, & Venkatram,
2010, p.1454) I agree with the benefits
of yoga for pregnant women, but I’m not sure I agree about the economical
part. Yoga for pregnant women is
encouraged under the supervision of a well-trained practitioner. Such classes are expensive and may seem
unattainable for families of low economic status.
Physical exercise in general is beneficially for pregnant women;
however, yoga specifically has many qualities that lend the practice to
accommodating pregnancy. Yoga is gentle
and meant to be adapted to fit the needs of the individual. One case study compared the benefits of appropriate
exercise for pregnancy with an integrated yoga practice. The yoga included breathing exercises and
meditation in addition to postures. The
study showed the women who participated in the yoga group scored higher on the
World Health Organization Quality of Life assessment instrument. These results
indicated yoga offered greater emotional well-being in addition to the typical
benefits of physical exercise. (Rakhshani, Maharana, Raghuram, Nagendra, &
Venkatram, 2010)
Another study compared birth outcomes for pregnant women practicing
yoga to the general benefits attributed to exercise. Once again an integrated approach to yoga was
used and the control group consisted of a walking regimen. The
respective aspects of yoga to be used were seen to be beneficial in the
following ways, “Reduction in stress through the integration approach of yoga
therapy is achieved by the practice of deep relaxation at the somatic level in
different postures (asanas), slow controlled breathing to decrease the
respiratory rate (pranayama), and mind calming techniques such as meditation
and chanting.” (Narendran, Nagarathna, Narendran, Gunasheela, & Nagendra,
2005, p.238) The results indicated not
only was yoga deemed a safe form of exercise for pregnancy, but the yoga group
had a reduction in preterm birth and the babies had a higher number of ideal
birth weights.
Yoga
is used in pregnancy for the relaxation techniques, as well as to benefit the
physical body. Many of the problems that
arise for women during pregnancy are due to gaining too much additional weight,
such as gestational diabetes, hypertension, or possible delivery complications. Yoga may also help with the low back pain
commonly attributed to pregnancy. The
benefits are not exclusively related to a yoga practice, many health benefits
may be accomplished by incorporating exercise in general into a pregnancy. However, a hatha yoga practice is a safe way
for women to stay in shape, not only are the postures modified to accommodate each
stage of pregnancy, but the individual’s specific needs as well. (Pruett &
Caputo, 2011) The strength cultivated in
a yoga practice will also help keep her strong for her delivery. Women who had practiced yoga showed to have a
shorter labor. (Curtis, Weinrib, & Katz, 2012) The only yoga contraindicated to pregnancy is
Bikram, due to the heating of the room.
The effect is similar to what maybe experienced in a hot tub and is
considered unsafe for pregnancy. (Pruett &Caputo, 2011)
Maintaining health while pregnant does not just involve what happens
during the day. Sleep is crucial. “Short-term restriction of sleep, even in
healthy people, results in a variety of adverse physiologic effects including
elevated blood pressure, activation of the sympathetic nervous system, impaired
glucose control, and increased inflammation. During pregnancy, it is
particularly important for a person to have optimum functioning for her
cardiovascular system and well-modulated glucose control.” (Beddoe, Lee, Weiss,
Kennedy, &Yang, 2010, p.368) One pilot
study compared the sleep habits of pregnant women before and after implementing
yet again, an integrated yoga practice into their lives. The two groups of women who participated in
the study differed by how far along in their pregnancy they were. Women who were introduced to a mindful-yoga
practice during their second trimester were able to improve their sleep. The effects of mindful-yoga were less
beneficial for the women in the third trimester; however the sleep disturbances
for the women in the second trimester were greater. (Beddoe, Lee, Weiss,
Kennedy, &Yang, 2010)
Yoga Practice
Asana refers to the physical postures our modern culture identifies
with yoga. It is especially important
the asana portion of yoga for pregnant women be practiced the instruction of a
knowledgeable teacher. This ensures the
practice will be adapted to meet the needs of the women and maintain a safe
experience. (Bala, 2012)
Yoga asana may be practiced throughout the entire pregnancy; however,
not all postures are to be performed.
Women, who are new to yoga, often find an increase in nausea during the
first trimester. In this case, it would
be better to wait until the nausea subsides to begin an asana practice. Women
who are accustomed to a yoga practice are encouraged to not push themselves as
hard as they use to, honoring that they are now pregnant. (Bachman, 2010)
Poses should be modified to meet the needs of the individual; a few
examples of typically safe and beneficial postures for pregnant women include
Malasana or squatting, or Bidalasana or cat pose. Malasana helps prepare the women’s body for
the opening in her pelvic area that needs to occur in order to give birth. The pose can be done with various supports,
either by placing something in immovable in front of the women to hold on to or
perhaps using yoga blocks placed under her bottom for support. Bidalasana is taken while on hands and
knees. It is known to be helpful to
elevate back pain associated with pregnancy. (White, 2001)
In contrast, various poses should be avoided. During pregnancy, women’s joints are changing
to accommodate child birth. It is
important to be cautious of overstretching.
Poses that put pressure on the abdomen should also be avoided. All poses should be done slowly and
mindfully. As with asana in general, anything that doesn’t feel good, should
not be done. (Bala, 2012)
Yoga in relationship to pregnancy embraces more than just yoga asana. The research available focused on integrated
approaches to yoga. “The various components of a yoga
practice that were included in the reviewed trials included postures (asana),
breathing practices (pranayama), concentration/meditation (dharana/dhyana),
deep relaxation or yoga sleep (yoga nidra), lectures/counseling sessions on
lifestyle change, and information on anatomy and chanting.” (Curtis, Weinrib,
& Katz, 2012, p.3) I found this
interesting, because in our culture there seems to be such a heavy emphasis on
yoga as an exercise. All of the studies
I found were testing an integrated approach to yoga. I feel this maybe why yoga could be
confidently recommended for all stages of pregnancy, even if asana could no
longer be practiced, pranayama for example would be beneficial. The various forms of integrated yoga used in
these studies had a component focusing on breathe, whether it was cultivating a
particular breathing pattern, aligning breathe with movement or in a simple
meditation that required an awareness of the breath. Other techniques included
in the umbrella of yoga were also included, such as meditation, chanting,
mindfulness and deep relaxation.
Conclusion
One of the documents I found was a collection of the
research that already exists exploring the benefits of yoga. In terms of looking at yoga scientifically,
the study suggested yoga was being looked at from too many angles. How could they pin point curative aspects to
specific yogic practices? I think this
is a good example of what we like to do with things in the west. Pull them apart into pieces and see how the
individual pieces work, separately. I
feel yoga is beneficial because it is holistic and adaptive to the needs of the
individual. So yoga changes to meet you
where you are at. How do you research
that? There are too many variables to prove,
if yoga works differently for everyone.
I think part of the mysticism involved in yogic practices should be
accepted as it is. We are seeing in
modern research how stress, although a mental process, causes physical
harm. The two are so closely related, it
seems silly to try and treat one aspect and disregard the whole. I feel yoga is an asset, because it already encompasses
wholeness. To pick apart yoga for the
purpose of empirical data seems to lose the essence of why yoga works at
all.
References
Bachman,
M. (2010). Insights on pregnancy from yoga and Ayurveda. Yoga Therapy Today,
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Beddoe, A. E., Lee, K. A., Weiss, S.
J., Kennedy, H., & Yang, C. (2010). Effects of mindful yoga on sleep in pregnant women: A pilot study.
Biological Research for Nursing, 11(4), 363-370. doi: 10.1177/1099800409356320
Curtis, K., Weinrib, A., & Katz, J.
(2012). Systematic review of yoga for pregnant women: Current status and future
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