The yoga exercises for pregnant women are a beneficial practice during pregnancy, since it can help you strengthen your body, relieve tension and promote relaxation.
Each birth is an adventure, the moment of truth, a marathon of sensations and emotions to get to know the baby, but above all a moment of great uncertainty and doubt.
You may be very aware and you are already preparing your body for it, or you may still see it far away. From mamayoga We are going to explain in this following article some of the best recommended yoga exercises for pregnant women.
How to prepare for childbirth with Mamayoga
Although there is no magic rule for you to have a short and orgasmic labor, there are a series of guidelines that will help you prepare in the best possible way. It is about maintaining good healthy habits that include:
- Physical activity adequate
- Healthy nutrition and varied
- Contact with the nature
- Rest
- Avoid toxic habits (smoking, drinking, stress or spending long periods in highly polluted environments).
The physical activity is one of these pillars, since it has been shown that It helps both to face the hours of labor with better resistance as above all to one better physical recovery in the postpartum
It's not about doing weights like crazy, it's about stay active, aware of your body and its innate ability to give birth. Just because, if your body knows how to give birth, you know how to give birth, no one has taught you but as a woman who knows her body you are the only one capable of doing it.
Yoga exercises and practices will help you recover this physical and mental strength, in addition to feel your body freer and lighter to move freely during labor. You will have better stress management and the fact of doing physical activity on a regular basis will help you have a deeper and more restful rest.
The best yoga exercises for pregnant women
happy hips
We could say that, in a certain way, Western society, with its customs, is not adapted to the female body: tight and rigid pants, sitting cross-legged, spending long hours in the same position working, walking without moving the pelvis, wearing heels, etc. All this influences that we have the muscles that surround the pelvis and hips inflexible or rigid.
To make our hips happier, we will give them joy and life combined with knowledge of the pelvic floor and its functions, of the natural movements of the pelvis and of the better postural positioning for your body.
No matter the shape of your pelvis, whether it is narrow or wide or round or more compact, your female body is ready to give birth. You just have to relax and rediscover yourself with the natural dance of your hips.
For this we will use pelvic mobility exercises, stretching and opening the hips, such as chakravakasana (the cow cat), upavesasana or malasana (squatting), upavista konasana (the turtle), ananda balasana (the happy baby), among many others.
feet on the ground
The next group of exercises will be those related to the connection with the earth. Anchoring your feet will give you security and confidence. The earth is the basic support, the support on which to anchor yourself to rise and be reborn.
When the head is very upset, fears invade us and lack of control appears, the earth returns us to the here and now, to the basics. With good support anything can happen.
The postures that we will use for this will be exercises where the earth is present, either through the presence of the connection of the soles of the feet, balance, leg strength, such as: vkrasana (the tree), vijayasana (the goddess), virabadrasana (the warrior and all its variants), etc.
Expansion and opening of the heart
Fill you with air, oxygen, joy and let the oxytocin flow all over your body, it will be another of the objectives of the yoga exercises to prepare your delivery. We will seek to open and expand your ribs and ribcage so that your breath flows more naturally.
Through a good placement of the diaphragm so that you do not lack air, the opening of your heart towards everything you are feeling and trust in yourself and your process.
The best expansion exercises will be those where from comfort we can open and create new spaces in the chest and ribs, for example: utthita trikonasana (the standing triangle), parsva upavista konasana (the turtle opening ribs), dvipada pitham (the two-legged table or the half bridge), utthita parsvakonasana (the intercostal stretch), ustrasana (the camel) and in general any variant of the postures where we can expand to the side or back.
flow in motion
Choose dynamic sequences where the movement linking one posture to the other through breathing is as important as the posture itself. A good one childbirth preparation is to move. Find the natural and spontaneous fluidity of your body.
During a natural birth, your body will be filled with waves, circles, arcs, and a thousand instinctive movements beyond the control of the mind.
In yoga, linked movements are practiced "vinyasas" but also during prenatal yoga each posture becomes dynamic. Even if you choose to maintain a posture, the voice, the sighs, the micro-movements of the body help you to be more aware to:
- Find your resources intensity management (voice, screams, focus of mind, breathing)
- Be present enjoying the moment even if it's crazy
- listen to your body and your needs
- Flow with the feel of your breath and heartbeat
Get strength and endurance with yoga exercises for pregnant women
In yoga classes we often remember that: "One minute, one contraction." You can already imagine that your labor will not be just a minute, nor just a contraction. So within the yoga exercises for pregnant women we will include strength and resistance.
Much of the work of the exercise will consist of convince yourself of your great resistance, in overcoming the self-imposed mental block of "I can't". Yes, yes you can you are fully capable, find your resources to relieve the intensity (movement, voice, breathing) and in the breaks free your mind so that the body fills you with hormones of pleasure and reward. Savor them, recharge your batteries and come back. The baby is coming, the baby!
Strength postures and resistance exercises, where you will feel powerful and affirm your infinite capabilities, held for one minute, such as vijayasana (the goddess), utkatasana (the chair and squats), virabhadrasana (the warrior) or dynamic meditations that seem to go on forever to break mental blocks.
Conscious breathing, one of the best yoga exercises for pregnant women
Finally, breathing will be another of the best exercises or yoga practices for pregnant women. Listening to your breathing will help you so much unload tensions, to open the way from the inner connection, to make you stronger, to free yourself from fear, etc.
Listen to your instinctive movements and allow yourself. Become a mammal, fully aware of your body and its movements, loose mind control For this reason, enjoy the process. Whatever your delivery, feel as free as possible and enjoy the arrival of the baby, the baby.
If you wish, we will be happy to accompany you in our prenatal yoga classes and in the birth preparation workshops.
